If you've ever wanted to spend an evening in a nightclub, listening to a great singer doing some old standards, Home Box Office lets you do it right at home with Carly in Concert: My Romance (Sunday at 11 p.m., Thursday at 5:30 p.m., Saturday at 4:30 p.m.)
Unlike so many "live" performances captured on cable, this is not just a video of Simon in concert. In fact, it's not even video - it's a filmed performance recreating the look and mood of a 1940s nightclub.And Simon delivers for the audience. Among the songs are "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered," "My Funny Valentine," "Something Wonderful," "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning," "He Was Too Good to Me," "Time After Time." She also includes two of her own compositions, "What Has She Got," and "We Have No Secrets."
Many of the numbers appear on Simon's new album, "My Romance," which she couldn't even get released until HBO agreed to air this special. It's hard to understand, because Simon has never sounded better.
The concert was filmed at New York's Apollo Theatre on Feb. 13, but it doesn't have the look of a theater. Instead, designers created the ultimate night club.
"Isn't this . . . the greatest night club you've ever been to," Simon says. "It's the nightclub we've all dreamed about."
But the real revelation of this concert isn't Carly Simon, it's Harry Connick Jr.
"The most appalling things about my guest . . . is his appalling age," Simon says. "He was released into the world the same year as `Sergeant Pepper.'
"At the age of 22, he's become the grand old man of the standard."
Best know for the soundtrack from "When Harry Met Sally . . ." - for which he won a Grammy Award - Connick really is amazing. What he does with the piano in a jazz rendition of Benny Goodman's "Stompin' at the Savoy" is almost unbelievable.
With a voice somewhat reminiscent of Sinatra, Connick performs his own "I'm Falling" and joins Simon for "A New Kind of Love" and "I Don't Know Why I Love You Like I Do."
And if that isn't enough, he plays the base on another number.
"Carly in Concert" will also be broadcast by HBO on April 25 and 30 and May 4 and 8.