A HANDFUL OF KEYS REVIEWSA HANDFUL OF KEYS REVIEWS
A Delightful Cabaret Confection
Sydney Morning Herald 12 March 2002
By Stephen Dunne
A delightful
cabaret confection that nods towards both Victor Borge’s
comic piano playing and the more standard tradition of sending up
celeb vocalists. South Africans Colyn and von Memerty are good
ivory ticklers, strong singers and appealing performers.
Back-to-Back
Back-to-Back
Baby-Grand Brilliance! Wentworth
Wentworth
Courier 20 March 2002 By Bunty Turner Fantastic... Prodigious
Versatility Australian Jewish News 29
March 2002 By Peter Morrison A
A
Celebration of the Piano Daily
Daily
Telegraph 14 March 2002 Two grand pianos and two
grand pianists. A unique mixture of recital and comedy – a
celebration of the piano and the artists who create for it. Handful of Keys simply
superb The Citizen - 4 December
2001 By Gayle Edmunds The Star Tonight - 5
December 2001 By Diane De Beer Business Day - 3 December
2001 By Mary Jordan Artistry and brio The Citizen - June 1995 By Raeford Daniel The Natal Witness - Monday
26 June 1995 by Yvonne Grimbeek Daily News - Tuesday 20
June 1995 By Suzy Bell The Natal Mercury -
Tuesday 20 June 1995 By Billy Suter Four hands of keyboard
hilarity and genius Radio 702- 8 June 1994 Mike Mills Two hot pianos and a
firecracker script Sunday Times - 12 June
1994 By Barry Ronge Cape Times - Tuesday 9
August 1994 By Peter Frost Cape Metro - Sunday 14
August 1994 By Michael Venables The Star Tonight - June
1994 By Garalt MacLiam Wall to wall delight Scenario - July 1994 By Michael Burke
Two of the best pianists to hit Sydney have been packing
them into the local opera house…Ian von Memerty and Roelof
Colyn left the audience breathless on Sunday night after more
than two hours of back-to-back baby grand brilliance. Everything
from a finely executed Rhapsody in Blue to an astonishing potted
history of musicals (114 in 11 minutes!), jazz,
rock’n’roll and recreations of Liberace, Elton, Billy
Joel, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder and Richard Clayderman. A
Handful of Keys is a four-handed tour-de-force…more than
a revue, more than satire. Totally original!
The versatility of the performers was prodigious as was
their mastery of the instruments and of so many diverse styles of
singing. The satire was rich and often hilarious. Highlights
include “History of The Musicals – 90 years in 11
minutes. And yet for me, some of the best numbers were when the
duo (jointly or severally) were more or less being themselves.
Memerty’s version of Billy Joel’s contemplative Baby
Grand towards the end was a quiet delight, whereas the pace
otherwise was most hectic. Yes, it was fantastic. Watch for the
return of the duo with the unpronounceable names.
It is very difficult not to gush about this show; A Handful of
Keys is quite superb in every way. It is a witty, intensely
entertaining piece of creative genius. Ian von Memerty and Roelof
Colyn tickle the ivories and the ribs of the audience with love,
laughter and irreverence. Meet Bach, Beethoven and the boys as
you have never seen them. A Sparkling piece of theatrical
mastery.
Ivories tickle the
funnybone
It's great to have this invigorating show back. It was a great
idea then and it's a great idea now.
With his former partner out of the country, Ian von Memerty had
to find a new pianist. And it had to be someone versatile with
piano skills, a good voice and the chutzpah to carry off the
jokes and antics they get up to on stage. He's got all that and
more with Roelof Colyn, who truly shines in his own right.
But this is a team effort and simply joyous to watch, as the two
maestros work through the repertoire which takes us from an
explosive Rhapsody in blue to an hilarious 10-minute run through
the history of musicals, the honky tonk of Ragtime, some great
women and men of song and much more.
A Handful Of Keys
In this revival of a 1994 smash hit, Ian von Memerty has an
emotional engagement with his artistry that turns the
interpretation of each piano note into a personal documentary. So
every glorious tune, each lively song and pulsating melody, the
cabaret sketches and tongue-in-cheek compilations become both a
haunting musical journey and a father's desperate attempt to beat
the odds.
von Memerty's playing is detailed and forceful, breezy and
free-spirited. He is as fine a singer-actor at work anywhere in
the country, always in control of the vocal line, moving across
the stage with sheer physical magnetism. He is also master of the
complicit glance, confident and witty, irreverent and
bittersweet. Always his performance pulses with energy, but what
makes it a singular triumph is that it reflects the insider's
knowledge that life can be merciless.
Joining him in the recreation of chart music, covers and jazz
standards, is Roelof Colyn. He shows the same infectious fervour,
fuelled by nostalgia, for the colourful and inventive hits with
which we all grew up.
Together, the two encompass the fields of minstrelsy, vaudeville,
Broadway and jazz, featuring the musical legends of the twentieth
century from radio, concert hall and the cinema. In a full and
varied programme are examples from the colourful repertoire of
Liberace, the stride-piano of Fats Waller, and the symphonic work
of George Gershwin. David Foster's Winter Games had the proper
feeling of a soul ballad; and Funeral for a Friend was evidence
of Elton John's ability to give a fresh angle to a well worn
theme.
It is all great fun.
Wow! Here is Entertainment with a capital E - a spellbinding and
wholly delightful adventure into music presented with flair by a
dynamic duo as engaging as they are accomplished, whose
consummate artistry at the keyboard, witty patter and
side-splitting antics makes for a thoroughly diverting evening.
Great piano work spiced with glee
Ian von Memerty and Bryan Schimmel, mean piano players, have
devised one of the most entertaining and funny shows revolving
around the piano. Their two-hour show, which had the Playhouse
audience falling around in their chairs, takes a fond and
fanciful look at the influence of the piano in some of the
world's best known songs.
Hitting the right notes
Nostalgic, naughty, zany, classy glitzy, A Handful Of Keys has it
all. Maybe even too much. But it works. Brilliantly. This slick
show features the sometimes dour-faced, sometimes smarmy-faced
pianist, Bryan Schimmel as Liberace in pink knee-highs, as a
whining origami-wigged Stevie Wonder, the simpery, interminably
slushy Richard Clayderman and singing 'Happy Days' in sarcastic
tone with matching dead-pan expression. Fellow pianist, Ian von
Memerty exposes a beautiful tushe, as firm and round as
snookerballs. He explodes with feigned orgasms offering a raunchy
rendition of Liszt, a flashy Ray Charles in melancholy mood
singing, Georgia.
Go asn see this show. The audience loved it. Standing Ovation!
Pianists dazzle in
polished show
If you're seeking the best entertainment in Durban at the moment,
look no further than this slick, polished production - a great
big lucky dip of tribute, send-up and sparkling showmanship which
drew a standing ovation on opening night.
'A Handful Of Keys' is .... Sensationally brilliant!
Take two guys, each of them at a piano and see how you can make
up a show that is not just entertainment with a capital 'E' but,
in fact, the whole damn word is in capitals.
The lads show that they can achieve physically whilst playing the
piano; swopping roles, swopping pianos et al with great
diversity, and then from the high comedy they will swoop in to
more serious mode to show their concert pianist ambitions with
Gershwin's 'Rhapsody In Blue'.
Their collective experience has resulted in an evening of
scintillating brilliance and considerable mirth.
I left the Civic Theatre after seeing A Handful Of Keys feeling
elated and almost giddy from being exposed to such a blast of
original talent in this sparkling, rapidly paced show.
It is a rare, almost unique, form of entertainment. It involves
pianos but it is not a recital. It contains songs but it is not a
cabaret. In fact, its advertising tag - "An extravaganza for
two pianos" - which I had dismissed as just another bit of
puffery, is the most accurate description because it is a full
theatrical production which is gorgeously lit and consumed.
Their pleasure becomes the audience's pleasure and this is one of
the cleverest and most sophisticated musical entertainments!!
Standing Ovation was well
deserved
Take two baby grands, put them back to back, sit two of South
Africa's best musical (and theatrical) talents behind them, add a
box full of props and sprinkle the entire revelry with a confetti
of witticism, and what have you got? Piano virtuosity and history
which does for the old tinkler what Amadeus did for Mozart.
Their hasn't been a more deserved standing ovation for a long
time!
It's a laugh an octave as
pianists tickle the ivories
When the musicians concerned are not only gifted pianists,
performing dazzling keyboard pyrotechnics in perfect partnership,
but also arrangers of rare talent and imagination; pleasing
singers who can also impersonate other vocalists far more
accurately than anyone else around; and, into the bargain,
energetic and wickedly witty entertainers, then they can fill two
hours without running out of ideas - and leaving their audience
wanting more.
Baby grands sizzle in
'Handful Of Keys'
What out for this slick, pacey, tiptop piece of entertainment
provided by just 'a handful of keys'. The keys in question are
those of two baby grand pianos, set centre stage, facing each
other, with the enormous talents of Bryan Schimmel and Ian von
Memerty tinkling the ivories at either end, stage left and stage
right.
A Handful of Keys is one of the most exciting and satisfying
entertainments I have ever experienced. It ranges from dazzlingly
inventive, to outrageously funny, to exquisitely beautiful.
The show is rich in surprises, clever angels and witty touches.
The brilliant 'History of the Musicals' epitomised the genius of
the show : combining knowledge, technique, flair, wit and love in
a way that people relate to at a range of levels.