R.I.P. Mary Cleere Haran

[Reza]

the independent.co.uk

Mary Cleere Haran: Actress and singer devoted to the Great American Songbook

Thursday, 5 May 2011

Mary Cleere Haran was a singer, actress and
writer whose performances and recordings added
new perspectives to the Great American Songbook.
Starting in 1985, when she made her debut on the
New York cabaret scene, Haran quickly established
herself as a talented, witty and appealing
performer. "She epitomises an idea of glamour
that's the quintessence of New York," Charles
Isherwood said in Variety, "or at least the
imaginary one of yore: elegant, urbane, a little naughty."

Haran's understanding of and great affection for
the work of such songwriters as Rodgers and Hart,
the Gershwins, Cole Porter and Harold Arlen led
her into creating a series of theme-oriented
performances, some in intimate cabaret settings,
others on theatrical stages. Among them were a
celebration of the 100th birthday of the writer
Dorothy Parker; A Fine Romance, which explored
the music of Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields; The
Memory of All That, an overview of the George and
Ira Gershwin catalogue; shows dedicated to Doris
Day and Johnny Mercer; and in 1995 a 100th
anniversary show dedicated to the lyrics of Lorenz Hart.

Hart was a particular favourite:at one
performance she did in theOak Room of the
Algonquin Hotel in New York she reminisced about
growing up when everything musical was Rodgers
and Hammerstein, untilshe learned about Rodgers'
earlier partner, the cigar-smoking, boozy,gay
Lorenz Hart. "I couldn't believe it," she gasped.
"Richard Rodgers wrote songs with a degenerate?
It was like when I heard Anne Bancroft was married to Mel Brooks."

Mary Cleere Haran was born in 1952 in San
Francisco, the second of eight children. Her
father taught theatre and film at San Francisco
City College. Encouraged by her Irish mother, she
learned how to step dance and also
(unsuccessfully) tried the violin. "So I started
to sing the notes," she recalled, "and discovered
I had a good voice." After a flirtation with the
hippie movement in Haight-Ashbury during the
1960s she returned to music, evolving a style
which grew out of her affection for the singing
of such stars as Judy Garland, Doris Day, Ella
Fitzgerald and Rosemary Clooney. When, at 19, she
saw a Peggy Lee rehearsal, she embarked upon a
career as a performer, but it was eight years
before her Broadway debut in The 1940s Radio
Hour. Off-Broadway roles in Manhattan Music,
Swingtime Canteen and Heebie Jeebies followed,
and a recurring part on TV in 100 Centre Street.

Her first record was There's a Small Hotel: Live
at the Algonquin (1992). Two years later came
This Heart of Mine: Classic Movie Songs of the
Forties, followed by This Funny World: Mary
Cleere Haran Sings Lyrics by Hart (1995), Pennies
From Heaven: Movie Songs of the Depression Era
(1998), The Memory of All That: Gershwin on
Broadway and in Hollywood (1999) and Crazy
Rhythm: Manhattan in the 20s (2002).

Outside the cabaret circuit, Haran worked on a
number of PBS documentaries, including Doris Day:
Sentimental Journey, Remembering Bing, Michael
Feinstein's The Great American Songbook, Irving
Berlin's America, and Satchmo. Haran died after
bicycling to deliver her resumé to a hotel in
Deerfield Beach, Florida. She was hit by a car
and never regained consciousness.

Frederick Nolan

Mary Cleere Haran, singer and actress: born San
Francisco 13 May 1952; married secondly Joe
Gilford (marriage dissolved; one son); died
Deerfield Beach, Florida 5 February 2011.