Neil Patrick Harris, John Lloyd Young, Valarie Pettiford and more sing to raise money for Project Angel Food

By Greg Hernandez on Oct 19, 2009 12:05 am | Comments (0) |

Neil Patrick Harris was among the performers who hit the stage of The Howard Fine Theatre in Hollywood Saturday night for inConcert, a musical celebration benefiting Project Angel Food. The star of How I Met Your Mother and host of this year’s Emmy and Tony award telecasts was under the weather, I later discovered, but performed flawlessly and showed why he was such a huge success on Broadway between Mother and Doogie.

“There are a lot of really big voices that are singing tonight so I thought I’d sing something a little simpler,” Neil told the crowd before starting his first number, a love song called Falling Slowly. “I’m very honored to be here and this is dedicated to my better half David because he’s awesome.”

Among the others on the bill: E.G. Daily, Deborah Gibson, Joanna (accompanied on guitar by boyfriend Mark Ballas of Dancing With the Stars), Valarie Pettiford, John Lloyd Young, Wilsom Cruz, Von Smith, Michael Chiklis, Jean Louisa Kelly.

The musical genres were all over the place but somehow it all flowed. There was even some rock and role: Doobie Brothers’ member Tom Johnston rocked the house on Without Love and his talented daughter Lara Johnston joined him for Listen to the Music before the entire cast (sans the ill Neil Patrick Harris) took the stage for a spirited finale of Let the Sunshine In.

The concert was directed by Howard Fine and produced by Paul Papile. Musical director was Gerald Sternbach.

Wilson Cruz sang two terrific songs including a sensational version of My Funny Valentine.

Who knew? Michael Chiklis of TV’s The Shield and The Commish, sure can rock and roll as he proved with a rocking renditions of Oh Darling and of The Beatles’ Let It Be.

This young lady is a real chip off the old block. Her name is Lara Johnston and her father is Tom Johnson of the Doobie Brothers. When she performed with her father later in the show, I wondered how it must feel to have a daughter so well equipped to carry on the family business which she proved as she belted out Drown in My Own Tears with astonishing power.

Anyway, I chatted with some of the particpants before the concert began and squeezed in among the real photographers with my little camera and took some snaps. Here are the pre-show highlights:

Valarie Pettiford knocked it out of the park with Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries from her Broadway hit Fosse as well as a delightful version of Mein Hair from Cabaret. This woman is a sensation and any chance you get to hear her sing, do it!

Singer Joanna was on stage more than any other performer doing a wide range of musical numbers. Accompanying her on guitar for most of them was her boyfriend, Mark Ballas, best known as one of the professional dancers on Dancing With the Stars.

Neil Patrick Harris before the show. Before he dueted with Deborah Gibson in the show, he joked to the audience that he had considered singing I’m Telling You I’m Not Going from Dreamgirls. Now that would’ve been fun to watch!

Before curtain time, Wilson Cruz poses with Deborah Gibson who sang The Rose, one of her old pop hits Only in My Dream, and a duet, That’s All I Need to Know, from Les Miserables with Neil Patrick Harris. “What brings a crowd together more than a death duet from Les Miz?” Neil joked.

She may be best known to the masses for co-starring in the long-running CBS sitcom Yes, Dear but Jean Louisa Kelly is one of the bright lights of Broadway. Her opening number was a powerful melding of the famous showtunes Tomorrow and Sun in the Morning.

John Lloyd Young’s first number, Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You, was from his Broadway smash Jersey Boys in whicb he played singer Frankie Vallie and won the Tony Award for best actor in a musical. His second song was the terrific Being Alive from Company.