An irresistible force and an immovable object: that would be Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett on Friday evening at Radio City Music Hall where they sang more than 30 standards, separately and together, before a respectful multigenerational audience that tilted older.
The immovable object was Mr. Bennett, a living monument at 88, who, when he moved across the stage, proceeded slowly, cautiously and with dignity. With his customary grace and humility, Mr. Bennett embodied the patriarch of American popular song he has been for the last two decades. Around him fluttered that irresistible force, Lady Gaga, an eccentric living bauble, in a succession of extravagant showgirl outfits and wigs. Shape-shifting from approximations of Mae West to Marilyn Monroe to a glittery cat-suited vamp, she twirled this or that accouterment like an old-time burlesque performer. Behind them was a big band augmented by a string section playing sumptuous arrangements, conducted by the pianist Mike Renzi.
The chemistry between the performers is noticeably different from the cuddly granddad and granddaughter intimacy of their videos. The program was really two solo sets skillfully sandwiched together with duets in which Lady Gaga’s bright, saucy Broadway-trained voice and Mr. Bennett’s mature saloon style couldn’t find a comfortable blend.
On the up-tempo numbers, Mr. Bennett reverted to his latter-day telegraphic style in which crucial words are shouted with a vehemence that in a song like the Gershwins’ “Who Cares?” makes him a cheerleader for the durability of the American songbook.
In her first solo segment, Lady Gaga’s back-to-back renditions of “Bang Bang” and “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” were fraught with drama. Her singing voice is almost as mutable as her provocative fashion plate image. In a quieter mode she resembles Natalie Cole, but with a brassier edge and a more freewheeling approach to tempos. She interjected spoken commentary into a couple of songs. During Cole Porter’s “Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye,” she remarked enigmatically that saying goodbye to yourself was not a good idea. A bright, aggressive “La Vie En Rose,” sung mostly in French, demonstrated her formidable vocal skills. Her most ambitious interpretation, of Billy Strayhorn’s “Lush Life,” was a sprawling, high-strung psychodrama that swooped from mood to mood.
For all the flash and synthetic sexiness Lady Gaga brought to the stage, musically the evening belonged to Mr. Bennett who brought his usual heart and optimism to signature songs like “How Do You Keep the Music Playing?” and “Smile.”
Mr. Bennett has an unerring ability to spin a song around its key phrases. In “How Do You Keep the Music Playing?” those words are the confession: “The more I love the more that I’m afraid/ That in your eyes I may not see forever.” Mr. Bennett fully vented that anxiety before hitting the song out of the ballpark with a climbing finale.
But the ultimate moment of truth came with his performance of “Smile,” and its declaration “you’ll find that life is still worthwhile.” “Life” was declaimed, followed almost immediately by “still,” shouted as a triumphant affirmation.
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