{"id":128145,"date":"2026-02-09T23:09:02","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T23:09:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/128145\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T23:09:02","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T23:09:02","slug":"jeff-harnar-can-come-home-again-with-blame-it-on-my-youth-at-dont-tell-mama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/128145\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Harnar CAN Come Home Again With BLAME IT ON MY YOUTH at Don’t Tell Mama"},"content":{"rendered":"

\ud83c\udfad NEW! Cabaret Theatre Newsletter<\/p>\n

\n Get all the top news & discounts for Cabaret & beyond.\n <\/p>\n

Jeff Harnar<\/a> has returned to the scene of the crime.\u00a0 The scene is Don\u2019t Tell Mama, and the crime is a crime of passion – the passion that the indefatigable Mr. Harnar has for his artistry, his audience, and the act of creation.\u00a0 The reason for the return is the celebration of a (*ahem*) few years working in cabaret, and, specifically, a particular decade in his journey, a decade spent singing songs on the very stage upon which he treads today.\u00a0 BLAME IT ON MY YOUTH is Jeff Harnar<\/a>\u2019s look back at the Nineteen Eighties and the songs he sang at Don\u2019t Tell Mama.\u00a0 Now, anyone who has read my reviews these last six years (it will be seven, come August) will notice that, just now, I did not refer to Jeff Harnar<\/a> working in cabaret and concert, my preferred name for the industry.\u00a0 I simply remarked on Jeff Harnar<\/a> working in cabaret.\u00a0 That is because Jeff Harnar<\/a> doesn\u2019t do concerts.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t do club acts.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t do anything but cabaret.\u00a0 Jeff Harnar<\/a> embodies cabaret, what it was in the beginning, what it was in its New York City heyday of the Eighties, and what it should always be.\u00a0 And anyone with an interest in cabaret, in what cabaret is, should be, could be, can be, should not only grab at every chance to see Jeff Harnar<\/a> in action, they should grab at THIS chance to see him in action – for a couple of reasons.\u00a0 First of all, people should see the show because it\u2019s good, indeed, they should see it because it\u2019s really good.\u00a0 They should also see it for proof that cabaret has a long life.\u00a0 For years, decades even, people have thrown out a (let\u2019s face it, ridiculous) declaration that cabaret is dead or dying.\u00a0 It\u2019s just a rumour, and neither a juicy one nor a true one.\u00a0 Cabaret isn\u2019t dead or dying, only the clubs are.\u00a0 But not this one.\u00a0 Don\u2019t Tell Mama has been here since the Eighties, and so has Jeff Harnar<\/a>, and they are both still going strong.\u00a0 There.\u00a0 Proof.\u00a0 Done.\u00a0 And, quite finally, people should go see Blame It On My Youth to see how cabaret was done in the Eighties, and that it works exactly the same in 2026.\u00a0 Misters Harnar and Rybeck are playing the same arrangements that they used in the reminisced-upon decade, and those treatments are just as exciting today as they were then, and there is the beginning of our story.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfad NEW! Cabaret Theatre Newsletter<\/p>\n

\n Get all the top news & discounts for Cabaret & beyond.\n <\/p>\n

\"Review:In the Nineteen Eighties, Jeff Harnar<\/a> worked with two different musical directors.\u00a0 The first was the late, great Brian Lasser<\/a>; the second was the living, great Alex Rybeck<\/a>.\u00a0 Several of the arrangements being performed are credited to Brian Lasser<\/a>, while others get Alex Rybeck<\/a> billing, and others, still, are listed as arrangements by both musical mavens.\u00a0 These arrangements shine a light on the Harnar aesthetic, on the Harnar experience.\u00a0 Jeff Harnar<\/a> is a storyteller who takes each song to a drafting table to prepare it for presentation, which is why a long-term collaborative relationship like this one (42 years) is a benefit to an artist – together, the two are able to create something unique, something new, even out of something old, and one gets the impression that that was the mission statement of the Lasser and Harnar collaboration, too.\u00a0 Song after song, Blame It On My Youth presents well-known compositions that have been given treatments that are so fresh and individual that it\u2019s almost assertive. \u00a0 The gauntlet is thrown down early in the show with a Lasser treatment of \u201cSay Yes\u201d that doesn\u2019t just veer away from both the Broadway and Minnelli versions; it vaults away from them, allowing Harnar to tell his own story and allowing the audience a new experience.\u00a0 I mean, let\u2019s face it, we all know Liza\u2019s version so well that, were Harnar and Rybeck to present it, we would all have been singing along\u2026 and, sure, there are people who want to sing the arrangement from the Liza With a Z special (and why shouldn\u2019t they?) but not Jeff Harnar<\/a>.\u00a0 His artistic goal has always been to make his own story, make his own way, and that is what he and Rybeck (and Lasser, from beyond) are doing at Don\u2019t Tell Mama.\u00a0 Harnar works his way through an impeccable script that doesn\u2019t just take him through his memories, it takes any long-haul New Yorkers through their own, and with each anecdote, he draws the kind of laughter and sighs that come with a retrospective show – because we were all there.\u00a0 We were young together.\u00a0 We were at some of these places, these clubs, these intersections, these shows together.\u00a0 And what a joy it is to look back on them together with these master storytellers.\u00a0 And there is most definitely a script, even though it rolls off of Jeff\u2019s tongue like it\u2019s happening in real-time, and it\u2019s filled with wit and warmth, sass and sweetness. \u00a0 A medley built around Harnar\u2019s youthful work as a food server is magnificent (two songs from Working and one from The Most Happy Fella), but made even more so through Harnar\u2019s own parody lyrics designed for application to his work with a famous singer from the middle of the last century.\u00a0 It\u2019s personal.\u00a0 It tells his very own story through someone else\u2019s composition. \u00a0 <\/p>\n

\"Review:As telling one\u2019s own story goes, Jeff Harnar<\/a> has a vault of experiences from which to draw upon, including family members working in the Hollywood scene, and the prestige of having the charts to a discarded Stephen Sondheim<\/a> song, which is easy to do these days, but in the Eighties, having that chart was significantly impressive.\u00a0 Naturally enough, these are the stories that lead into said discarded song, the fate of which musical theater buffs know, for \u201cThat Old Piano Roll\u201d became part of the overture to the musical Follies. \u00a0 Also among the personal stories woven into Blame It On My Youth is the tale of how he met Brian Lasser<\/a>, giving way to an entire section of the program devoted to Lasser\u2019s work, both as songwriter (\u201cBeing With Me Is No Picnic\u201d and \u201cWhat I Saw\u201d) and as arranger (\u201cWhere Is Love?,\u201d \u201cIf That Was Love,\u201d and \u201cNowhere Man\u201d), a segment of the show that, alone, makes the ticket price worthwhile.\u00a0 \u00a0The third act of the show provides more bounty of greatness by way of a mash-up of songs by Kander & Ebb and Jerry Herman<\/a>, brilliantly adapted by Rybeck – it is quite thrilling to witness.\u00a0 Harnar\u2019s vocal abilities are, as they have always been, par excellence, and a part of that excellence is the acting skills he uses to interpret the writers\u2019 work in words and in music, so having great material is paramount.\u00a0 Lasser and Rybeck both provide Harnar with great material, for one of the evening\u2019s other highlights is the wickedly funny \u201cWhy Did You Have To Split?,” which Rybeck wrote with Seth Friedman<\/a>.\u00a0 Jeff Harnar<\/a> is a balladeer, it\u2019s true, a man who knows his way around something tender and emotional, but he also has comic timing that can\u2019t be bought, and he executes the comedy number with the ease of an artist doing that for which they were born, and between Alex and Brian\u2019s mutual contributions as writers and arrangers, Jeff is afforded material worthy of all of his considerable talents.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

\"Review:One of Mr. Harnar\u2019s most salient talents is one people don’t often discuss:\u00a0 quality control.\u00a0 In an age when people get up on a stage under-rehearsed, with half-baked scripts they haven\u2019t bothered to memorize, using cheat sheets, music stands, and iPhones to access their lyrics, and so poorly prepared that their most frequently uttered word is \u201cum\u2026,\u201d Jeff Harnar<\/a> stands as a beacon of professionalism and perfection.\u00a0 It is a pleasure, a joy, a privilege to see him in action because he and his program are polished and ready to be enjoyed and absorbed – but not so polished that it appears slick.\u00a0 It is polished accessibility.\u00a0 This is the beauty of having been in the game long enough to necessitate a show centered around a \u2018return\u2019 that looks back on one\u2019s \u2018youth\u2019:\u00a0 Jeff Harnar<\/a> knows himself.\u00a0 He knows his aesthetic, his brand, his artistic voice, and he applies that knowledge at every turn in the programming.\u00a0 Jeff Harnar<\/a> is a cabaret artist at his core.\u00a0 Jeff Harnar<\/a> is cabaret at any age.\u00a0 And those of us who appreciate the art form owe him a debt of gratitude.\u00a0 The best way to pay that debt is to get a ticket to the show.\u00a0 That way, everyone wins.<\/p>\n

\"Review:<\/p>\n

Jeff Harnar<\/a> will play BLAME IT ON MY YOUTH on February 12, 19, and 26.\u00a0 Tickets can be accessed HERE.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Visit the website for Jeff Harnar<\/a> HERE <\/a>and the Facebook page for Alex Rybeck<\/a> HERE.<\/a><\/p>\n

Photos by Stephen Mosher.<\/p>\n

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Reader Reviews<\/p>\n

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