Nelson Pressley on Christine Ebersole

The Washington Post on Ebersole’s Kennedy Center concert:  “Plain wonderful is the way to describe Christine Ebersole’s jazzy, polished 80-minute set Saturday night at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater.”

Cry Me a Michael Buble

Cabaret types seem to like and dislike Michael Buble.  But we all hope that after his audience wanders into the lounge, they stay for the cabaret.

Give him this much: he has established a style.  He no longer sounds like he’s necessarily imitating Harry Connick Jr. imitating Sinatra.  I think he does a stunning job expressing a certain muscular vulnerability. 

I would say that the hallmark of this recording is “an overstated understatement.”  But perhaps the real hallmark is the set of contradictions Buble represents: the macho crooner, the neo-hipster, the sensitive swinger.

• Cry Me A River
• All of Me
• Georgia on My Mind
• Crazy Love
• Haven’t Met You Yet
• All I Do Is Dream Of You
• Hold On
• Heartache Tonight
• You’re Nobody Till Somebody Loves You
• Baby (You’ve Got What It Takes)
• At This Moment
• Stardust
• Whatever It Takes

The NYTimes on Love, Linda

The NYTimes reviews Stevie Holland’s bio-play about Mrs. Cole Porter: “Ms. Holland takes the nightclub stage of the Triad Theater as Linda Lee Porter, the dazzling divorced socialite from Kentucky who wed Porter, eight years her junior, in 1919 when both were expatriates in Paris. Despite her husband’s homosexuality — Ms. Holland has Linda saying she “accepted his romantic appetite for men because I had his love” — the couple stayed married for 35 years, until Linda’s death from emphysema in 1954.”

New Alan Cumming CD

So often when people ask me to define “cabaret” I tell them that it’s performance in a cabaret space and that anything that works for that sort of intimate space is “cabaret.”  Others I know define it as “personal theater.”

However, you define it, Alan Cumming’s CD, I Bought a Blue Car Today, is a model of what next generation cabaret could look like.  Cumming, best known for his Tony-winning turn as the Emcee in Cabaret, combines a punk rock sensibility tempered by an English music hall tradition filtered through work in the musical theater.  The results are very personal and eclectic covering a variety of  moods and emotions from the touching to the emotionally raw to the truly wacky.

He covers a range of material: Dolly Parton’s Here You Come Again, Falsetto’s What More Can I Say, and Cabaret’s Mein Herr to name but three.  In fact, the final cut of the CD, Beautiful is the best for summing up the multi-dimensional aspect of the CD.  It is a tender love song laced with the aggressive patios of the street.  However, in the album notes we learn that it was written by a septuagenerian as a birthday tribute for his wife.

  1. Shine

  2. I Dance And Dance And Smile And Smile

  3. That’s Life

  4. Wig In A Box/Wicked Little Town

  5. Don’t Tell Me

  6. Here You Come Again/My Interpretation

  7. Next To Me

  8. Thinking Of You

  9. Unexpressed

10. Where I Want To Be

11. What More Can I Say

12. Mein Herr

13. All I know

14. Beautiful

Stephen Holden on Daryl Glenn and Jo Lynn Burks

The NYTimes on the Nashville-parody show at the Metropolitan Room: “A satire of a satire made with love: if that description of the revue “Daryl Glenn and Jo Lynn Burks Play and Sing Robert Altman’s ‘Nashville’ ” sounds self-contradictory (how many satires emanate from love?), it evokes the heartfelt nostalgia of a popular little show that has been playing at the Metropolitan Room on the first Sunday each month.”

CDs from Michael Feinstein & Cheyenne Jackson and

The two leads of the recently opened Broadway revival of Finian’s Rainbow each has a new CD.

Thanks to my friend Jim who is working the show, I got an advanced copy of the new  disc Cheyenne Jackson has of his recent cabaret outing with Michael Feinstein, The Power of Two.

Actually “outing” is an appropriate description for this recording, since the theme of the show seems to be the collaboration of two gay men.  (In cabaret? Imagine!)

There is a deliberate effort to sing classic songs with honest uses of pronouns vis a vis the performers.  Interestingly, Feinstein re-records Old Friend from this re-focused perspective, singing “… and she wonders at my taste in men..” as opposed to the “… taste in friends…” that he sang on his first recording in the 80’s.  We also hear that gay-piano-bar-of-an-era chestnut We Kiss in a Shadow. 

The songs are well sung, very personal, with terrific arrangements by the great John Oddo. But when the gay undertones on numbers like the Sinatra / Davis  arrangement of Me and My Shadow become overtones, I have to say that a bunch of charm is lost.  Ditto You’re Nothing Without Me from City of Angels — especially the cringe-inducing ”you’re the master and I’m just a dog” lyric.  On the other hand, it was wonderful to be reminded of the terrific Marshall Barer / Michael Leonard song The Time Has Come — a bossa nova anthem that should be played at every same-sex wedding (I know I want it at mine).

I will say that without the benefit of the patter from the live show, I get confused by the vibe on the CD.  The songs themselves skirt the line between friendship and romance, and to my limited knowledge, Feinstein and Jackson have other partners.  On the other hand, when a genetically unrelated male and female share a stage, there’s always a presumption of romance, even if the duo is George Burns and Goldie Hawn.  So perhaps this is another way of questioning our perceptions and assumptions.

• I’m Nothing Without You (Cy Colman/David Zippel)/Michael & Cheyenne
• Me and My Shadow (Dave Dreyer/Bill Rose/Al Jolson)/Michael & Cheyenne
• Old Friend (Nancy Ford/Gretchen Cryer)/Michael
• A Foggy Day (George Gershwin/Ira Gershwin)/Cheyenne
• So in Love (Cole Porter)/Michael
• Old Devil Moon (Burton Lane/E.Y. Harburg)/Cheyenne
• The Time Has Come (Michael Leonard/Marshall Barer)/Michael
• I’m Checkin’ Out – Goodbye (Billy Strayhorn/Duke Ellington)/Cheyenne
• The Power of Two (Emily Saliers)/Michael & Cheyenne
• I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter (Fred E. Ahlert/Joe Young)/Michael
• I Get Along Without You Very Well – Don’t Get Around Much Anymore (Hoagy Carmichael –Duke Ellington/Bob Russell)/Cheyenne
• We Kiss in a Shadow (Richard Rodgers/Oscar Hammerstein II)/Michael & Cheyenne
• Salt and Pepper – I’m Nothing Without You (John Barry/Leslie Bricusse – Cy Colman/David Zippel)/Michael & Cheyenne
• If I Can Dream (W. Earl Brown)/Michael & Cheyenne
• Someone to Watch Over Me (George Gershwin/Ira Gershwin)/Cheyenne

(Note: Special pre-order offer for a signed copy of the CD.)

The leading lady of Finian’s Rainbow has released a new CD, appropriately a tribute to songs writen by Burton Lane and Yip Harbourg, Let’s See What Happens.

The CD is exquisitely sung — if you have a particular affinity for any of these songs, Baldwin’s version is sure to be a favorite.  There is a good balance of familar material (How Are Things in Glocca Morra ?) and discoveries (The World Is In My Arms).  And that master, Jonathan Tunick, has contributed arrangements for the recording.

Unfortunately, for me, the total adds up to less than a sum of its parts.  The recording has no discernable raison d’etre, and sadly never develops momentum.  And while Baldwin is a beautiful singer with a point of view, there is little distinctive in her work.  She seems to disappear into a lovely soprano haze. 

On the other hand, we’re about to do a lot of holiday entertaining, and this would be perfect to put in the mix for your next cocktail or dinner party!

• That Something Extra Special
• How About You?
• Moments Like This
• Come Back To Me
• Here’s To Your Illusions
• Have Feet Will Dance
• How Are Things In Glocca Morra?
• Poor You
• Paris Is A Lonely Town
• I Like The Likes Of You
• Let’s See What Happens/ Open Your Eyes
• Where Have I Seen Your Face Before?
• He Wasn’t You
• I Don’t Think I’ll End It All Today
• The World Is In My Arms

Stephen Holden on Paula West

The NYTimes on the singer appearing at the Algonquin: “No singer can be all things to all people. (A pop-gospel arrangement of “Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes” felt more dutiful than deeply felt.) But Ms. West comes as close as any jazz singer nowadays to carrying off that impossible feat.”

Stephen Holden on Amanda McBroom

The NYTimes reviews McBroom’s show at the Metropolitan Room: “Most of those songs are theatrical monologues demanding that a singer dwell inside their turbulence and ride out the storm as they intensify and dissipate like musical tornados. They can build into a demented frenzy, like “Carousel,” in which an accelerating merry-go-round is a metaphor for a world gone mad, or slowly slip into despair, like “Ne Me Quitte Pas.

“That French title, literally translated, is a blunt imperative, “Don’t leave me!” — a lot harsher than its familiar American adaptation, “If You Go Away,” lets on. The difference between the American and French versions, Ms. McBroom joked, is the difference between Baskin-Robbins and baked Alaska.”

Norm Lewis on CD

When I saw First You Dream at Signture, I picked up Norm Lewis’s CD, This is the Life.  The recording demonstrates a multifaceted artist who can successfully pull off a wide variety of mateial, from Broadway to Latin to Mozart.  The variety is terrific and demonstrates Lewis’s great prowess, but occasionally gets a little schizo as a listening experience. 

But Lewis also has a large ensemble with great orchestrations, which especially sizzle on numbers like It’s Not Unusual and the anthemic Go the Distance.  And the highlight of the CD is a duet with Audra MacDonald on All the Things You Are. 

• This Is the Life
• Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?
• No One Is Alone
• Before the Parade Passes By
• Moon River
• We Live On Borrowed Time
• It’s Not Unusual
• Misty
• All the Things You Are
• Di Provenza
• Go the Distance

Stephen Holden on Liz Callaway

The NYTimes reviews the belter at the Metropolitan Room: “Liz Callaway radiates the health and well-being of a Midwestern soccer mom who has it all. The apple-cheeked optimism of this Chicago-born singer is embedded in a big, bright Broadway voice that illuminates a room like a ray of sunshine beamed to the rafters. This sweetness and light would be cloying if it didn’t feel entirely genuine and didn’t also carry an undertone of yearning. Abundance, after all, brings its own disquiet.”