MUSIC

Bayou City Concert Musicals introduces another chapter in its ongoing series celebrating The Great American Songbook with You're the Cream in My Coffee:  the music of DeSylva, Brown and Henderson. The cabaret will be on consecutive Mondays in May, May 4th, May 11th and May 18th at 7:30 p.m.. It will again be presented at the Performance Centre of The Ensemble Theatre, 3535 Main Street, between Holman and Berry. The entrance to the Performance Centre is located on the corner of Fannin and Berry.

Their names may not be familiar but their songs have lived on from the 1920s, and become American Standards. Paul Hope, Founder and Artistic Director of BCCM has put together a rollicking, fun-filled night of songs primarily from the team’s heyday in the Roaring 20’s. Expect to smile and sway with “Life Is Just A Bowl Of Cherries,” “Bye Bye Blackbird,” “Button Up Your Overcoat,” “Black Bottom,” and their most famous, “Birth Of The Blues;” dance in the aisles with the “Varsity Drag.”

One of the busiest musicians in Houston, Michael Mertz, will be the Musical Director.

DeSylva’s first successful songs were those used by Al Jolson on Broadway in 1918. Soon after he met Jolson, DeSylva began working as a songwriter at Tin Pan Alley. In 1925 he joined with lyricist, Lew Brown and composer, Ray Henderson, one of the top Tin Pan Alley songwriters of the era. The partnership produced a long line of feel good songs, before going on and writing the Broadway musical favorite, Good News. They also succeeded George Gershwin in writing The George White Scandals of 1923 through 1928. The Scandals were written to compete with The Ziegfeld Follies.

The team wrote many of the songs heard on the radio version of The Hit Parade, and in 1956, the Hollywood film, The Best Things In Life Are Free, starring Gordon MacRae, depicted the life of the DeSylva, Brown and Henderson team.

Tickets for the cabaret are $25.00 and are available by calling 713-465-6484 or may be purchased at the door. Tickets are also available on line at bayoucityconcertmusicals.org. Reservations are recommended.