2005 Cabaret Convention
- Monday Night
OPENING
NIGHT AT THE CABARET CONVENTION
Monday, October 17, 2005
Rose Hall, New York City
Reported by Joe
Regan
Please note: No "song lists" distributed at the convention, so some
of the song titles in these reports may not be accurate and/or misspelled.
The Mabel Mercer
Foundation presented the opening night of the 16th Annual Cabaret
Convention in New York at a new venue, THE ROSE THEATER at Time
Warner Center (Columbus Circle, Broadway at 60th Street, NYC - CenterCharge:
212-721-6500 - http://www.jazzatlincolncenter.org/
) on Monday, October 17, 2005.
First,
a word about the new venue. THE ROSE is quite different from THE
TOWN HALL, the previous venue of the convention. THE ROSE is located
on the fifth floor of the new Time Warner building at Columbus Circle.
To reach THE ROSE, you must take the elevators in the lobby at the
north end of the building, adjacent to a brightly lit Rose Box Office.
There is no escalator access up to the fifth floor, you must use
the elevators. However, there is escalator access down and out of
the venue. The other major difference is that there is an enormous
lobby space, unlike the cramped Town Hall foyer, and several refreshment
bars so there are no longer the jammed waits for the one or two
attendants. The bad news for smokers is there is no "step out and
smoke on the sidewalk" area, unless you want to take the elevators
down five flights and go outside the building. There is also a large
check room in the lobby area and more than one accessible restroom
for each of the sexes on several tiers.
The hall
itself is built like a European opera house with loges/boxes on
the sides and also at the back of the stage. On opening night there
were many people seated in the boxes behind the stage area. The
stage itself is vast in width, leading to some amusing long crosses,
including Donald Smith's first appearance. He was announced and
he entered from stage right and made a long, long cross to stage
right where his podium was. The piano was dead center in the stage
with a single red rose spotlighted. In his introductory remarks
Smith noted that this rose was a tribute to the late Forrest Perin
who at previous opening nights had played the medleys of the Great
American Songbook at the piano on the stage as attendees found their
seats. Mr. Smith honored the patrons of the Foundation and his staff,
making special note of the conventions' great benefactor, Edythe
Kenner, for her ongoing love and support. He then introduced Co-Director
of the Foundation, Marian Seldes. There is no one else like Ms.
Seldes. She is all elegance and style and made a short speech about
the marvelous theater and how wonderful it was for everyone to be
there in such a wonderful site.
Andrea
Marcovicci, who has appeared at all 16 cabaret conventions, was
the first performer. Ms. Marcovicci, stunning in a magenta dress
outlined in black lace, opened with a marvelously appropriate sing,
"On Such A Night Like This" by Marshall Barer and Hugh Martin. Ms.
Marcovicci holds no peer on how to work a difficult stage and she
was wonderful singing that song to the audience, to the side boxes,
to the rear boxes, from one end of the stage to the other. She is
a class act and this performance started the program at a peak.
She followed with an enthusiastic "Let's Get Lost" and "Slow Boat
to China," from her Loesser show.
Mr. Smith
announced that one of the themes of the show would be to honor the
late Bobby Short and the next guest was Jane White. Ms. White, who
too rarely appears on the stage, began by telling wonderful stories
how young Bobby would hang about with her and her husband and her
husband's restaurant, Trattoria di Alfredo (which bought recognition
applause from the audience). Now, Ms. White, most recently as Solange
in the Broadway revival of Follies, and the original Queen in Once
Upon A Mattress, and whom I remember fondly from a great act that
she did at a club on Seventh Avenue that Alfredo also owned (Red
Garter?), sang a slow version of "Looking At You" that was personally
directed to Mr. Short. They don't make 'em like this anymore. She
followed with a rocking "Ain't That the Truth?" Someone please book
her in a club again.
The next
performer was jazz singer Rebecca Kilgore from Portland. Ms. Kilgore
was a major hit at the convention last year and again she again
imported pianist Rossano Sportiello from Italy as well as first
class bass and percussion players. Her second song was in Italian,
and, of course, all the audience knew it: "nel blu di pinto di blu"
aka "Volare". She was followed by the stunning Paula West who did
the tongue twisting "Waters of March" song. She then discussed the
great Ethel Waters and sang an unknown to me verse to a moving "Happiness
Is Just A Thing Called Joe". This is one of my favorite songs, and
I saw "At Home with Ethel Waters" at the Geary in San Francisco
many years ago but I did not recognize that verse. Someone told
me it is in the movie "Cabin In the Sky".
The amazing
Bill Charlop followed and did a stunning version of "Glitter and
Be Gay". I knew his father many years ago and Bill looks a lot like
him except that Moose was bald. His second number was a concerto-like
rendition of "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life". He was
followed by Karen Mason who did a great upbeat version of "Winner
Take All" and then a wonderful version of the title song of her
new album. All of these performers were enthralled by THE ROSE.
Steve Ross
came out and reminisced about Bobby Short, then sang a rapid tongue-twisting
"Putting on the Ritz" and "Stepping Out with My Baby" medley, proving
that he is the master Fred Astaire interpreter. He then shifted
gears and sang a song by Barry Kleinbort and Joseph Thalcone from
a fringe musical last year, Was. The first line of the lyric was
something about wouldn't it be wonderful if our life were a moving
picture and the song was about how wonderful it would be if time
would remain immortal in those happy images. The title of the song
was "Time" and it was a real discovery. The song brought tears to
my eyes and had the full house in a well deserved hush.
Mr. Ross
was followed by Sandy Stewart, accompanied by her son, Bill Charlop.
She sang a slow, moving "Just One of Those Things" and then a rocking
"Taking A Chance on Love" with lots of riffs from Mr. Charlop. She
made a joke about how some singers marry their piano players but
she gave birth to hers. She may tell this joke at every appearance
but it certainly works.
Lumiri
Tubo, who had flown up from an engagement in Florida that day, was
wearing a stunning red dress outlined in silver and molded to her
body. Each time I have seen Ms. Tubo at the convention she has always
bought color and excitement to the convention. She did not disappoint
and her second song was a moving song "In My Daughter's Eyes," dedicated
to her nine-year old daughter.
The exciting
Karen Akers appeared and announced she was going to sing a Rodgers
and Hart song in a different interpretation. She did "I Wish I Were
In Love Again" as a slow torchy ballad, which gave all new meaning
to the usual comic lines. The result was the ballad of a suffering
partner. It was very effective.
Wesla Whitfield
came out on the stage and sang a moving "They Can't Take That Away
from Me". She followed it with her amazing medley of ""Land of Imagination"
and "Imagine." Ms. Whitfield is a wonderful interpreter of the Great
American Songbook and she gets better and better each time I see
her.
Jeff Harnar
came out and sang a rocking version of "Put 'Em in a Box" by Jule
Styne and Sammy Cahn that demonstrated what a wild number that forgotten
song is. Jeff's version reminded me that the score for "Romance
on the High Seas" was written for Betty Hutton and when Hutton got
pregnant, Jule suggested the singer Doris Day as a replacement and
the rest is history. Jeff then sang another forgotten song, the
tender title song to a Bing Crosby flick of the thirties, "East
Side of Heaven".
The first
night's performance ended at 8:40 pm. As mentioned, it was a terrific
opening night, a night of highlight after highlight from the top
performers in cabaret.
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