Welcome to Valerie Lemon web site

Valerie Lemon has created a veritable time machine. With her sophisticated look, elegant garb, command of the stage and her nostalgic songs, she transports her audience to the heyday of the New York's 'forties and 'fifties nightclub scene. Offering many of the most memorable numbers from the Jane Froman Songbook (Somebody Loves Me, I'll Walk Alone, That Old Feeling, Blue Moon), she effectively sweeps the room back to the era of the Empire Room, the Persian Room, La Chansonette, Cafi Society, the nights of shows at 10, 12 and 2, and the heyday of American songwriters. Just glancing at Valerie's song list starts a cabaret aficionado's blood surging. The tunes of Harold Arlen, Richard Rodgers, Arthur Schwartz, George Gershwin and Sammy Cahn, lyrics by Lorenz Hart, Buddy DeSylva, Peggy Lee, Jule Styne, Frank Loesser and others.

With the aid of her accompanist, Don Rebic, arrangements by Christopher Denny and Phil Hall, and Eric Michael Gillett as director and co-writer of the script - it was more than just patter - Valerie Lemon's show is a touching overview of Froman's life, a reminder of her importance to the popular music scene for a score of years, and a perfect showcase for Valerie's honey-sweet voice. Chalk up this one as a "don't miss."

In “The Jane Froman Songbook—A Song in My Heart,” on Wednesdays and Saturdays through April 3 at Mama Rose’s, singer Valerie Lemon, classy and serene, pays tribute to the noted singer of the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘ 50s with songs and stories. In the course of the show, Lemon endears herself to her audience and, assisted by supportive colleagues, persuasively conveys the moods of a diverse repertory and arouses renewed interest in the art of the singer she salutes. Lemon wrote the show with her director, Eric Michael Gillett. Christopher Denny and Phil Hall prepared the song arrangements and Don Rebic is at the piano.

Lemon welcomes us with a gentle, but upbeat “It’s a Good Day,” by Dave Barbour and Peggy Lee, sung in a warm “legit” soprano, and limns her graceful “title song,” Rodgers and Hart’s “With a Song in My Heart,” as if entranced. She bouncily dispenses a protective lover’s advice in Bob Merrill’s “I Wancha Around.” Recalling that Froman’s father disappeared suddenly and that her musician mother’s work often took her out of town leads into Lemon’s wistful “Wish You Were Here,” by Harold Rome. She shares a pang at glimpsing a matchless old flame in Sammy Fain and Lew Brown’s “That Old Feeling.”

Music of George Gershwin was a specialty of Froman’s and Lemon, happily, programmed five of his songs, starting with a joyous “Somebody Loves Me” and breezy “Who Cares?” She envelopes us in tenderness in “Embraceable You” and revels in its high head tone ending. In a languid pairing from “Porgy and Bess,” Rebic joins her on vocals for “It Ain’t Necessarily So,” which segues into the soprano’s ravishing “Summertime,” which Gershwin entrusted to Froman for its premiere on radio, a year before anyone else ever sang it. It isn’t every cabaret singer who knows her way not only around an opera aria, like the one from “Porgy,” but can also deliver an art song such as “Going Home,” the “spiritual” that Antonin Dvo?ák created for inclusion in his Ninth Symphony, “From the New World.” Lemon sings the latter, with words added by William Anns Fisher, late in this “Songbook,” when speaking of Froman’s retirement from show business and return to her native Missouri to devote her life to charitable causes.

A segment on the World War years starts with Lemon’s wry lament about the dearth of available young men, thanks to the draft board, in Arthur Schwartz and Frank Loesser’s “They’re Either too Young or too Old.” Froman survived the crash of the plane that was taking her to Europe to entertain the troops, married the co-pilot who rescued her and, despite her injuries, necessitating numerous operations, performed in 95 U.S.O. shows in three months. Lemon honors her bravery with Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne’s “I’ll Walk Alone” and recreates Froman’s Americana Medley from these shows, inviting the audience to sing along with her in “Give My Regards to Broadway,” “California! Here I Come” and “ America, the Beautiful.”

Lemon celebrates Froman’s comeback to the club and cabaret world in the late 1950s, after nearly three decades in the public eye, with an unusually understated, but still jubilant “Get Happy,” by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler. She concludes this fascinating journey with an expression of faith in “I Believe,” which Froman commissioned of Erwin Drake, Irvin Graham, Jimmy Shirl and Al Stillman, and introduced on television when it was still in its infancy.

One thought that occurred to this listener—and is apparently in the minds of Lemon and Gillett as well—is that, with the singer so convincingly in character as she sings her songs, the monologues about Froman’s life might benefit from delivery in the first person instead of the third.

The diva and arranger Denny have also put together an eight-song CD, entitled “Valerie Lemon sings the Jane Froman Songbook—a song in my heart,” on the Dawn Productions label and available through the web site. The selections include “It’s a Good Day,” “With a Song in My Heart,” “Summertime” and “I Believe.” It makes for a fine souvenir of a memorable evening.

	The Jane Froman Songbook
	"Valerie Lemon arrives on stage looking eerily like Froman, and she's gifted with a similar supple and lyrical mezzo. Outfitted in a ball gown of lace and tulle, the illusion is remarkable, as is much of the show. Lemon captures the bubbly essence of Froman's reassuring voice with evergreens like the Gershwin's "Embraceable You" and plaintive reading of "I believe". "I'll Walk Alone" gives Lemon her finest moment. The show has potential for a life outside cabaret" John Hoglund Backstage
	Valerie Lemon The Jane Froman Songbook A Song In My Heart Mama Rose's Valerie Lemon has created a veritable time machine. With her sophisticated look, elegant garb, command of the stage and her nostalgic songs, she transports her audience to the heyday of the New York's 'forties and 'fifties nightclub scene. Offering many of the most memorable numbers from the Jane Froman Songbook (Somebody Loves Me, I'll Walk Alone, That Old Feeling, Blue Moon), she effectively sweeps the room back to the era of the Empire Room, the Persian Room, La Chansonette, Cafi Society, the nights of shows at 10, 12 and 2, and the heyday of American songwriters. Just glancing at Valerie's song list starts a cabaret aficionado's blood surging. The tunes of Harold Arlen, Richard Rodgers, Arthur Schwartz, George Gershwin and Sammy Cahn, lyrics by Lorenz Hart, Buddy DeSylva, Peggy Lee, Jule Styne, Frank Loesser and others. With the aid of her accompanist, Don Rebic, arrangements by Christopher Denny and Phil Hall, and Eric Michael Gillett as director and co-writer of the script - it was more than just patter - Valerie Lemon's show is a touching overview of Froman's life, a reminder of her importance to the popular music scene for a score of years, and a perfect showcase for Valerie's honey-sweet voice. Chalk up this one as a "don't miss." Peter Leavy ©Cabaret Scenes www.theatrescene.net In “The Jane Froman Songbook—A Song in My Heart,” on Wednesdays and Saturdays through April 3 at Mama Rose’s, singer Valerie Lemon, classy and serene, pays tribute to the noted singer of the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘ 50s with songs and stories. In the course of the show, Lemon endears herself to her audience and, assisted by supportive colleagues, persuasively conveys the moods of a diverse repertory and arouses renewed interest in the art of the singer she salutes. Lemon wrote the show with her director, Eric Michael Gillett. Christopher Denny and Phil Hall prepared the song arrangements and Don Rebic is at the piano. Lemon welcomes us with a gentle, but upbeat “It’s a Good Day,” by Dave Barbour and Peggy Lee, sung in a warm “legit” soprano, and limns her graceful “title song,” Rodgers and Hart’s “With a Song in My Heart,” as if entranced. She bouncily dispenses a protective lover’s advice in Bob Merrill’s “I Wancha Around.” Recalling that Froman’s father disappeared suddenly and that her musician mother’s work often took her out of town leads into Lemon’s wistful “Wish You Were Here,” by Harold Rome. She shares a pang at glimpsing a matchless old flame in Sammy Fain and Lew Brown’s “That Old Feeling.” Music of George Gershwin was a specialty of Froman’s and Lemon, happily, programmed five of his songs, starting with a joyous “Somebody Loves Me” and breezy “Who Cares?” She envelopes us in tenderness in “Embraceable You” and revels in its high head tone ending. In a languid pairing from “Porgy and Bess,” Rebic joins her on vocals for “It Ain’t Necessarily So,” which segues into the soprano’s ravishing “Summertime,” which Gershwin entrusted to Froman for its premiere on radio, a year before anyone else ever sang it. It isn’t every cabaret singer who knows her way not only around an opera aria, like the one from “Porgy,” but can also deliver an art song such as “Going Home,” the “spiritual” that Antonin Dvo?ák created for inclusion in his Ninth Symphony, “From the New World.” Lemon sings the latter, with words added by William Anns Fisher, late in this “Songbook,” when speaking of Froman’s retirement from show business and return to her native Missouri to devote her life to charitable causes. A segment on the World War years starts with Lemon’s wry lament about the dearth of available young men, thanks to the draft board, in Arthur Schwartz and Frank Loesser’s “They’re Either too Young or too Old.” Froman survived the crash of the plane that was taking her to Europe to entertain the troops, married the co-pilot who rescued her and, despite her injuries, necessitating numerous operations, performed in 95 U.S.O. shows in three months. Lemon honors her bravery with Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne’s “I’ll Walk Alone” and recreates Froman’s Americana Medley from these shows, inviting the audience to sing along with her in “Give My Regards to Broadway,” “California! Here I Come” and “ America, the Beautiful.” Lemon celebrates Froman’s comeback to the club and cabaret world in the late 1950s, after nearly three decades in the public eye, with an unusually understated, but still jubilant “Get Happy,” by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler. She concludes this fascinating journey with an expression of faith in “I Believe,” which Froman commissioned of Erwin Drake, Irvin Graham, Jimmy Shirl and Al Stillman, and introduced on television when it was still in its infancy. One thought that occurred to this listener—and is apparently in the minds of Lemon and Gillett as well—is that, with the singer so convincingly in character as she sings her songs, the monologues about Froman’s life might benefit from delivery in the first person instead of the third. The diva and arranger Denny have also put together an eight-song CD, entitled “Valerie Lemon sings the Jane Froman Songbook—a song in my heart,” on the Dawn Productions label and available through the web site. The selections include “It’s a Good Day,” “With a Song in My Heart,” “Summertime” and “I Believe.” It makes for a fine souvenir of a memorable evening. ©www.theatrescene.net By *Bruce-Michael Gelbert*
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