“Something Wonderful,” Indeed: Paul Hope Cabarets at Ovations

I can’t say for certain that Something Wonderful is the best of all Paul Hope Cabarets, but I know it is one of the best sung.

What music they make!

It’s not too difficult when your performers know how to put across a song, how to dive deeply into the lyrics and express what the song needs, or just make the tune sound ravishing. All this is accomplished with an improv attitude that’s relaxing and comfortable for the audience, as well as for the singers. The atmosphere at Ovations Night Club is clubby, chummy, and very down home. It’s like your own private little supper club, only without the beef steak.

What they’re singing doesn’t hurt, either. We’re treated to a sparkling medley from the late musicals from Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, Jr., subtitled “The Last Ten Years,” and the catalog on display – some of the songs are from shows rare and forgotten – ranks among that dynamic duo’s best output.

After the phenomenal successes of Oklahoma (1943), Carousel (1945), and State Fair (1945), their only original film work, which won them an Oscar for the number “It Might As Well Be Spring,” the tepid critical response to the experimental Allegro (1947) re-invigorated the team to out-do themselves with their masterpiece South Pacific (1949).

Then came the last ten years…The King and I (1951), Me and Juliet (1953), Pipe Dream (1955), Cinderella (1957), created for television, Flower Drum Song (1958), and their unquenchable juggernaut, The Sound of Music (1959).

These two masters of the Broadway musical would be in the songwriter’s Hall of Fame for just these last six shows, although I hear you saying, What’s Me and Juliet and Pipe Dream? You’ll have to attend the cabaret to find out about these rarities from our gracious and snappy host Paul Hope, whose wit and charm and a little snark is just what Broadway needs. Our emcee fills in the spaces with backstage sass and diss and makes us want to hear more. The exceptional performers supply all the magic needed to send us over the moon.

From The King and I: listen in wonder as Lauren Salazar and Kellen Schrimper wrap their ethereal soprano and luscious baritone around “We Kiss in the Shadows.” Amanda Passanante channels both the iconic stage star Gertrude Lawrence and the behind-the-screen dubbing master Marni Nixon as Anna in Hello Young Lovers. Tamara Siler envelops the First Wife’s paean and lament to her unrequited love, the King, wrapping the song in her rich mahogany in “Something Wonderful.” The capstone of this section is Salazar’s achingly lovely rendition of “My Lord and Master,” in which slave Tuptim reveals that while the King may possess her, her heart belongs to someone else. The song is short, but Salazar imbues it with fierce passion, heartache, and radiant tone. Perfect.

From the forgotten Me and Juliet, a backstage comedy, Pantelis Karastamatis sets his ringing tenor to the stirring “No Other Love,” adapted by Rodgers from the theme of his television documentary series, Victory at Sea. The more-forgotten musical Pipe Dream, based on John Steinbeck’s sequel to Cannery Row, ironically called Sweet Thursday, about a prostitute on the waterfront, received its only positive notices for Rodgers’ score. We can see why when Schrimper pours out his plangent baritone in “All At Once You Love Her.” A gem later recorded by Perry Como. Schrimper easily makes us forget Como. Cinderella begets comedy from Siler, Laura Kaldris, and Salazar in “When You’re Driving Through the Moonlight,” as the stepsisters wonder how Cinderella knows everything about the ball when she, apparently, wasn’t there. Hope adds his own theater know-how to the waltzy “Ten Minutes Ago,” and Schrimper stuns again with the haunting love ballad, “Do I Love You Because You’re Beautiful.”

Flower Drum Song gives us a most tender rendition of “Love Look Away” from Kaldis, Salazar’s bouncy “I Enjoy Being a Girl,” and Passanante’s wistful “A Hundred Million Miracles.”

Who doesn’t know The Sound of Music? Love it or hate it, everybody knows the songs. But wait until you hear Siler’s blues rendition, a la Helen Morgan, of “My Favorite Things,” or Karastamatis’ emotional take on the title number, Kellen’s soft and affecting “Eidelweiss,” or the ensemble’s romp through “Do Re Mi” for the finale.

Always filled with some kind of wonder, Hope’s cabarets carry you away on the wings of the Great American Songbook. Our musical past comes alive. The shows are entertaining, educational, breezy, and bright. It’s in the gossip, the backstage lore, of course, but most importantly, it’s in the music. This septet, abetted ably on the piano by music director Robert Lewis, sings out magnificently. Rodgers and Hammerstein never had it so good.

Something Wonderful. 7:30 p.m. Mondays through September 23. Ovations Night Club, 2536 Times Boulevard. For more information, visit . $32.50.