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Irving Berlin’s music on Kuss stage

Audience to enjoy more than 60 pieces from great American songwriter

The nostalgic warm fuzzies of Irving Berlin’s music will come alive on stage in “I Love a Piano,” a revue playing Kuss Auditorium.

ENLARGE PHOTO

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By Andrew McGinn, Staff Writer 4:56 PM Friday, October 16, 2009

SPRINGFIELD — Irving Berlin’s music has survived two world wars, a depression, disease and the threat of nuclear holocaust.

Things looked a little shaky when that guy named Taco remade “Puttin’ on the Ritz” into an unlikely synth-pop hit in 1983. (Surely you remember Taco, perhaps the only Indonesian MTV sensation?)

But just as Falco couldn’t completely destroy the music of Mozart (but close), there was no way Taco could harm Berlin’s legacy.

A nationally touring revue of the man’s music, “I Love a Piano,” will hit Kuss Auditorium Saturday, Oct. 17, with more than five dozen reasons why Berlin might just be the greatest songwriter of all time (with Taco a close second).

Consider these to start:

• “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” (1911)

• “Blue Skies” (1926)

• “Puttin’ on the Ritz” (1929)

• “How Deep is the Ocean” (1932)

• “Easter Parade” (1933)

• “God Bless America” (1938)

• “White Christmas” (1940)

Then there’s his 1946 musical “Annie Get Your Gun,” which spawned such classic tunes as “There’s No Business Like Show Business” and “Anything You Can Do.”

How much time do you have?

Because we could go on.

In his 101 years on planet Earth (he died in 1989), the former Israel Beilin wrote more than 1,200 songs.

In “I Love a Piano,” the audience gets to follow the life of a piano through four generations of performers going way back to “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” Berlin’s first big hit.

But, really, that’s just a cover to sing some timeless songs — more than 60 in all.

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0352 or amcginn@coxohio.com.