By Ernest Kearney — For the most part, Tom Lehrer is as lost to most of our fellow citizens as Jimmy Hoffa, the Ark of the Covenant and Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Which is a pity because Lehrer could give the vast, unvaccinated, “Fox Spewing,” deplorable horde of post-MAGA America a much-needed dose of common sense and treat the rest of us to a good laugh.
It’s understandable if you don’t know Tom Lehrer. A contemporary, as well as friend, of Lenny Bruce, Lehrer composed only 37 songs and recorded five albums when, in 1972 at the height of his popularity, he turned his back on show biz to teach math at UC Santa Cruz.
But in the brief 20-year period in which Lehrer recorded, and performed sporadically, he established himself as the greatest musical satirist of the 20th century inspiring the likes of Tim Minchin, Weird Al Yankovic and Randy Newman.
In The Layers of Tom Lehrer, Allan Murray provides the audience with some background on Lehrer – from entering Harvard at fifteen, how performing was all but thrust on him, his struggles with censorship and his claim of having invented the Jell-o shot.
But Murray does not clutter the stage with excessive biographical tidbits, rather he chooses, wisely, to fill his stage time with a tasty medley of Lehrer’s toe tapping seditious tunes.
The Masochism Tango, The Vatican Rag and The Old Dope Peddler which rapper 2 Chainz sampled on his 2012 debut album, “Based on a T.R.U. Story.”
Lehrer’s songs tended to spring from topical topics, as when New York City in the ’60s, in an attempt to spruce up the “Big Apple,” actually considered utilizing toxic bird feed to reduce the city’s pigeon population, which resulted in Lehrer’s classic ditty Poisoning Pigeons in the Park:
“All the world seems in tune
On a spring afternoon
When we’re poisoning pigeons in the park.
Every Sunday you’ll see
My sweetheart and me
As we poison the pigeons in the park…”
Concerns of greater gravity still got the same treatment from Lehrer who, when lamenting the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the world, put out Who’s Next:
“Japan will have its own device,
Transistorized at half the price.
South Africa wants two, that’s right:
One for the black and one for the white!
Who’s next?”
Murray nails every song masterfully. So masterfully, that he and The Layers of Tom Lehrer earn a PLATINUM MEDAL.
His final Fringe show, at The Wren Theater, is Saturday August 28th at 8:00pm.
Give yourself a treat and be there.
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Experience
The Layers of Tom Lehrer
at
The Wren Theater @ The Irish Import Shop
742 Vine Street
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