There wasn’t a lot of Burt Bacharach on the jukebox in Bud’s on Broadway, a blues bar in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, a favorite hangout of local Kyle Riabko, a musician who gravitated to Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, and Led Zeppelin. But years later, the aspiring recording artist, then in his early 20s, was hired to sing demos and found himself in a studio with the legendary composer. Riabko says: “A light bulb went off inside me and I started digging into Burt’s catalogue like a student.”Riabko’s “thesis” turned out to be “Close to You: Bacharach Imagined,” a six-year project that premiered at the New York Theatre Workshop in 2013. Then titled “What’s It All About?,” the show, starring Riabko and directed by Steven Hoggett (“Once”), featured contemporary reinterpretations of Bacharach’s pop hits, largely those written with his longtime collaborator Hal David. After the New York engagement, the acclaimed show ventured to London’s intimate Menier Chocolate Factory before transferring to the West End for a five-month run.The original London cast of “Close to You” has now been captured on Ghostlight Records, recreating the production that the Telegraph described as “a delirious dreamscape” that took some 30 classic songs and “…stripped them right back to reveal the narrative of bruising melancholy at their core. “Riabko, who has starred on Broadway in “Hair” and “Spring Awakening,” will be making an appearance at Joe’s Pub on October 17 and 18 in a solo concert. Blouin Artinfo recently caught up with him to talk about his affinity and affection for the artistry of a man nearly 60 years his senior.Why the title change from “What’s It All About?” to “Close to You”?We felt that “What’s It All About?” was a title that may have confused some people. I began this project as an experiment to explore the many questions in Burt’s music about the meaning of life. But we noticed in our audiences, at New York Theatre Workshop and at the Menier, that during the performance, couples came closer and closer together, holding hands, putting their arms around their partners.What’s the emotional essence of the Bacharach catalogue?The song that really tells us everything about Bacharach and David is the song “Alfie” [the title tune of the 1966 and 2004 films]. That’s why I gravitated to that phrase “What’s It All About?” in the first place. It asks the question and then answers it: “Love.” Although the song was written for the movie, Burt himself is an Alfie. If you ask him his favorite song, his immediate answer is “Alfie.”Are you suggesting that Bacharach has issues with intimacy like the protagonist of the film? I don’t want to speak about his personal life for him but his story includes that stuff. He’s a very quiet, philosophical guy. When he speaks, you see that there’s a lot more going on behind the eyes than just the words he’s saying. People tend to think of the Bacharach-David catalogue as fun and light and romantic. But when you start to dig into what they’re really saying, you discover a lot more depth.Is the preponderance of the catalogue about requited love or unrequited love?I think there’s both but I do think that things tend to lean toward unrequited yearning. What’s interesting is that while the music tends to be optimistic and lighthearted, the lyrics tend to be relatively dark and full of yearning. If you read the lyrics as a poem, like “This Guy’s In Love with You,” and it ends “…if not, I’ll just die,” that might sound a little cheesy. But if you slow it down and strip the production value out of the song, what you’re left is something darker and much more emotional.Why have some in your generation leveled the criticism of “elevator music” at his work? I think it’s because of the dressing that the songs come in. It’s not the songs themselves. What many young people have difficulty seeing past is the production values, the large orchestral stuff, the flugelhorns and trumpets. That’s so beautiful but it’s nothing like what they’re hearing on the radio. It’s not right or wrong. It’s just not a language they’re familiar with.Is that why you’ve made a point of stripping down the songs to a guitar or piano? That’s sort of why our project makes sense. I admire and love these songs for what they were but if you take them down to their ultimate core, to a guitar or a piano, then I thought they would sound more modern. They might appeal to younger people but also not alienate people who grew up with Burt Bacharach.You’ve described his songs as “mini-movies.” Is there something inherently cinematic rather than theatrical about his work? I guess I gravitate toward movies because Bacharach and David are known for their work in movies. Burt’s songs have these emotional peaks and valleys like a movie. They tend to tell a full story that rises and falls in different ways depending on what the song’s about.One of the best songs on your CD, “I Come to You” is from a film which was one of the biggest bombs of musical history, “Lost Horizon.” What did you think of the movie? It’s a mess. A crazy, crazy film and Burt says the same thing. But the soundtrack has a lot of merit to it. When I discovered it, that particular song just stopped me in my tracks. And I thought, “Whoa, what is that? I really love that!” I played the song for Burt and he said, “That’s good. Who wrote it?” and I said, “You did. You wrote it.”Another song you reimagine is “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” from “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” Were you struck by the incongruity of the scene over which it plays, an outlaw giving his partner’s lover a ride on a bicycle? That’s totally true. I think even Robert Redford had a problem with it because he didn’t see the relevance. It made no sense. But I love that it makes no sense. Again, that song is such a good example of the paradox of so many songs. The lyrics are sad but the music is totally jolly and happy. Then you add a third dimension to the song, playing it over [that] bicycle scene…. It really jogs your imagination, foreshadowing the darkness ahead.
↧