Michael Feinstein at the Mann

There seem to be two Michael Feinsteins. The first is the researcher and archivist who seeks out old musicians and interviews them, and explores attics and garages to find demo records and manuscripts belonging to people who worked on Broadway many decades ago, like the lyricist Ira Gershwin. In order to pass along those treasures, Feinstein began to record them, playing the piano and crooning in a soft and intimate voice.

The second is a Feinstein who belts out Broadway songs with a full baritone voice, strutting in front of large orchestras and snapping his fingers in a style reminiscent of Frank Sinatra in his mature, ring-a-ding, swinging period.

They're the same person, of course, and both were on display at the Mann Music Center Friday night. But the transitions between the two Feinsteins sometimes sound awkward.

Shy no more

He'll start a love song in a whisper, then switch to a big climax that shatters the mood. I prefer the softer sound, but I've reconciled myself to Feinstein's dual approaches. The brash full-volume Feinstein reaches a wider public. He fills approximately 10,000 seats on a summer evening, and in the process he serves the cause of disseminating a unique songbook— a valuable American art form— to a new generation.

It's also apparent that the scholarly Feinstein's inner soul loves to perform in front of a crowd. At Feinstein's early performances he seemed shy and academic; now he seems to enjoy being extroverted. That was most apparent when he sang a loud and brassy arrangement of "Luck Be a Lady," from Guys and Dolls.

Feinstein's intimate side sparkled best in his renditions of the Sammy Cahn-Julie Styne song, "Time After Time," and the Oscar Hammerstein-Jerome Kern number, "The Folks Who Live on the Hill." During the latter, he brought unique phrasing to a line in the middle of the song— "Our veranda will command a view of meadows green"— that displayed the neat interior rhyme and communicated the song's romanticism.

Journey in one sentence

Feinstein also performed a valuable public service when he unveiled a restoration of the long-lost orchestration of the Gershwins' "They Can't Take That Away from Me" that was used in the 1949 film The Barkleys of Broadway. That song takes you on a breathtaking journey from a dinner date to falling in love to eternity in one sentence: "The way you hold your knife;/ The way we danced 'til three;/ The way you changed my life;/ Oh no, they can't take that away from me."

Feinstein's guests, Betty Buckley and Christine Ebersole, didn't get much stage time. Buckley husbanded her resources in a slow and careful performance of "Memory," which she made famous when she appeared in Cats in 1982. Ebersole was in fine voice as she sang "On the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe" and "Embraceable You."

The Philadelphia Orchestra, augmented by some musicians who travel with Feinstein, brought sheen to the melodies, although some of the orchestrations were so busy that they distracted from the simple pleasures of the songs. Guest conductor Jack Everly led two overtures from Julie Styne shows, Gypsy and Funny Girl.