Anita Gates, NY Times

June 13, 2014

In the olden days (2011 or so), if you wanted to see and hear Karen Akers doing the esquisite songs of masters like Cole Porter and Stephen Sondheim, you had to make reservations at one of Manhattan’s chic cabarets. But here she is in all her splendor, onstage at the Westport Country Playhouse, in “Sing for Your Shakespeare,” both standing out from and blending in with an ensemble cast.

Not that the other five cast members are anything but first-rate. In fact, this is the kind of show that audience members can be heard, time after time, turning to their companions and whispering comments like “What a Voice!”

“Sing for Your Shakespeare” is a high-concept musical revue. For its co-conceivers- Wayne Barker, Mark Lamos, and Deborah Grace Winer- it was a matter not of setting Shakespeare’s own words to music (although there’s a bit of that), but of presenting mostly 20th-century songs written for musicals inspired by Shakespeare’s plays. And as any Broadway fan knows, that covers a lot of territory, including “Kiss Me, Kate” and “West Side Story.” The idea was first produced in New York as part of 92nd Street Y’s Lyrics and Lyricists series. […continued]

0000