Jane Lynch and Kate Flannery: Two Lost Souls at the Café Carlyle

Photo: David Andrako

Warming up with “When You’re Smiling,” the charismatic, jazzy backup band for Jane Lynch and Kate Flannery cued the Café Carlyle audience: we were set for a night of music and laughs. The “Two Lost Souls” came onstage, like a pair of Chaplinesque hobos, foils of one another, and funny. Reaching up, Jane Lynch, the more “Sapphic” of the duo could hit the ceiling. And crouching down, Kate Flannery, “by way of Jameson,” had a low center of gravity. Between the two, such songs as “One Note Samba,” “Bei Mir Bist Du Shon,” and “Good King Wenceslas,” rose to lively, harmonious levels. Kate’s “Shy,” belted out, was hilariously unconvincing. And Jane did a great “Mambo Italiano.” And on they went till the near finale, Jule Styne’s “The Party’s Over,” followed by Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus.”

But the party was not over quite yet. The band—excellent Tony Guerrero on piano, Rich Zurkowski on bass, Sean McDaniel on drums, and with his “lesbian” haircut Mark Visher performing on saxophone and flute-- and singers had more in store for the rapt crowd: “the crap I grew up with,” introduced Jane Lynch in a most feminist mode: “Please Be Him,” “You’ll Be a Woman Soon,” “I Can’t Live Anymore,” they crooned. Yup, “There’s No Getting Over That Rainbow!” And then, bonding over “Puff the Magic Dragon” and “You’ve Got a Friend in Me,” they wanted to show another side of their repertoire, with Jane going full speed with “Anaconda:” “Oh my gosh, look at her butt!”

Regina Weinreich

Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura