No composer carried the exquisite craftsmanship that defined American songbook standards into the rock era more skillfully, prolifically or joyously than Burt Bacharach. His melodies, at once sophisticated and soulful—qualities shared by the lyrics of Hal David, his principal collaborator—produced dozens of enduring hits, featuring artists ranging from Dionne Warwick, his most famous interpreter, to Elvis Costello, with whom he co-wrote an album of songs released in 1998.
There were also the film scores and songs that earned Bacharach, who died just two years ago, three Oscars, and the Tony Award-nominated Broadway musical Promises, Promises. That’s to say nothing of the sheer, timeless cool that attracted stars from Angie Dickinson, his second wife, to Mike Myers and director Jay Roach, who cast him in all three of their Austin Powers movies.
It would be impossible to cover the full breadth of these accomplishments in under two hours, but Going Bacharach: The Songs of an Icon, a new revue that clocks in at roughly 100 minutes—including an intermission—manages to intelligently document its subject’s dazzling career and distinctive artistry while keeping the emphasis squarely where it should be, on the music itself.
[Read David Finkle’s ★★☆☆☆ review here.]
Conceived by its producer, Jack Lewin, best known for the long-running off-Broadway tribute Our Sinatra, Going Bacharach was co-created by Lewin and a trio of diverse talents, among them the author and journalist Will Friedwald, a leading authority on traditional pop and jazz (who has contributed to this site) and Tedd Firth, a musical director and arranger for A-list jazz and theater artists, who serves as musical supervisor.
The fourth creative contributor, Adrian Galante, is also the show’s arranger, orchestrator and music director, and he has a prominent presence onstage, leading a five-piece band—in which he plays both piano and clarinet—as well as three featured vocalists in spoken segments charting Bacharach’s achievements and influence.
Galante’s playbill bio describes him as “an exciting young multi-instrumentalist, arranger and composer prodigy (sic) whose remarkable command of his craft belies his youth,” and that self-assurance—along with a clearly genuine, breathless enthusiasm for the material—is palpable. His flashy pounding of the piano keys during the overture left me concerned one of them might break; later in the preview I saw, his repeated rising up from his seat and other flamboyant gestures threatened to upstage the singers.
Happily, the vocal prowess in Going Bacharach defies overshadowing. John Pagano, who sang in Bacharach’s touring band for 26 years, is joined here by Hilary Kole, a celebrated jazz veteran whose singing is at once witty, sensuous and achingly pure, and Ta-Tynisa Wilson, a rising Broadway performer with a fluid, sparkling soprano. (Wilson’s bio mentions she was also a finalist on the tenth season of “American Idol,” though she apparently only made it to the top 24—yet more proof that Simon Cowell is an ignorant boor.)
Galante and director David Zippel showcase these talents individually and in various combinations, with the performers taking turns providing backing vocals, sumptuous harmonies and comedic touches. Pagano turns “What’s New Pussycat?” into a simulation of the scratched vinyl recording he listened to as a boy, with the band accommodating his frantic skips. Kole and Wilson segue into a duet of “Wives and Lovers,” then tease their male cast mate by imagining how the song might have been rewritten from a woman’s perspective.
In the second act, the singers offer intriguing personal takes on Bacharach as an artist and, in Pagano’s case, a man. Kole, a composer herself, breaks down the dizzying shifts in time signature that Bacharach somehow made infectious. Wilson, the youngest, admits that when asked to audition with “Anyone Who Had a Heart”—a song she knocks out of the park in Act One, with muscular, bluesy support from the band—she wasn’t familiar with the tune, then delivers an even more stunning rendition of “One Less Bell to Answer.”
If Wilson, like many artists of her generation, occasionally gets mired in melisma, that’s in part a testament to the affinity for R&B that drew fellow icons from Aretha Franklin to Luther Vandross to Bacharach’s music. Galante, to his credit, emphasizes the stylistic diversity and depth of a composer who is too often associated, by casual fans, with lounge music, as do his accompanying musicians, who also deserve mention: keyboardist Patrick Firth, guitarist Derek Duleba, bassist Nate Francis and drummer Jakubu Griffin.
Going Bacharach concludes with a couple of its subject’s most radiant, life-affirming songs, among them my personal favorite, “Alfie,” which earned him another Oscar nomination but, criminally, not the award. The other tune, like the production as a whole, reminds us how much the world still needs what Bacharach gave us, now and always.
Going Bacharach opened January 12, 2026, at Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater and runs through February 15. Tickets and information: goingbacharach.com
