Grant Barbara Cook a little leeway with her titles; "Mostly Sondheim" is really half Stephen Sondheim and half songs this great composer/lyricist wishes he'd written -- and grant her a few minutes to get comfy with the Vivian Beaumont stage (she claims to love the space but spends her opening number swiveling like a sprinkler head), and you'll be treated to an evening of fine, sometimes moving singing. An opening quartet of Harold Arlen songs sets a tone of excellence that isn't even broken when she (on the night I saw the show) endures occasional difficulties with the microphone wire and gets lyrically tangled in a song from Passion. (A more diva-ish songstress would have started the tune from the beginning, but Cook -- bless her -- simply said, "We won't go through all that again" and, with divine musical director Wally Harper and bassist Jon Burr in tow, picked up right from where she left off.)
As for the songs Cook carries off perfectly, "In Buddy's Eyes" (from Follies) is pretty definitive, with "Send in the Clowns" not far behind.
