2005 Cabaret Convention
- Saturday Night
SIXTH
NIGHT AT THE CABARET CONVENTION
Saturday, October 22,
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 sixth
night of the 16th Annual Mabel Mercer Foundation Cabaret Convention
took place on Saturday, October 22nd
at the ROSE HALL at Time Warner Center (Columbus Circle, Broadway
at 60th Street, NYC - CenterCharge: 212-721-6500 - http://www.jazzatlincolncenter.org/
). The
program was dedicated to three of 2005's Centennial Songwriters:
Harold Arlen, Dorothy Fields, and Jule Styne.
The program
began on a high note with the sumptuous soprano, Anna Bergman. She
sang an effortlessly blended medley of the Arlen/Johnny Mercer "Fancy
Free" and Arlen/E. Y. Harburg/Ira Gershwin "C'est La Vi." She then
announced that Dorothy Fields was the first female writer to win
an Academy Award for best original song in a movie. It was in 1936
and Ms. Bergman did an exemplary Fields/Jerome
Kern "The Way You Look Tonight."
Julie Wilson,
who celebrated her 81st birthday Friday, was introduced as the personification
of everything that is possible in entertainment and came out with
Christopher Denny. She saluted Fields with the Fields/Jimmy Mc Hugh
"I Must Have That Man." Although she no longer has the voice she
had years ago, Ms. Wilson has no peer in her ability to dramatize
the great lyrics and melodies of the Great American Songbook. She
followed with the Fields/Jerome Kern "Remind Me," a song she said
she learned from hearing Mabel Mercer sing it. Although she had
to be prompted on one line of the seldom heard verse, the dramatic
effect of her performance was stunning. She then entertained us
with the Fields/Mc Hugh "I Can't Give You Anything But Love."
Who can
follow Julie Wilson? Joyce Breach appeared with Tedd Firth at the
piano and sang a tender full voiced soft swinging version of the
Styne/Comden & Green song "Make Someone Happy" from Do Re Mi. She
introduced her second Styne song as a collaboration between Styne
and Sammy Cahn. The pair had written several popular songs during
World War II about waiting for lovers to return home from the war
(i.e., "I'll Walk Alone") and decided they should write about the
reunions of separated lovers. With the seldom heard verse, she sang
a great version of "It's Been a Long, Long Time."
Lisa Asher
followed with Fields' "Don't Blame Me."
She followed it by introducing a song from the movie version of
the Styne/Leo Robin musical Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. She stated
it was a great Jane Russell number and then she sang "Ain't There
Anyone Here for Love." It was fun, but that song was actually written
by Hoagy Carmichael and Harold Adamson and was added to the movie
by that team as well as "When Love Goes Wrong". It was not a Styne,
Arlen or Fields song.
Donald
Smith came out and announced that this year's winner of the Julie
Wilson Award for superb skills in the execution and communication
of the Great American Songbook: Jeanne MacDonald. Ms. MacDonald,
clearly surprised, was speechless as she received her plaque. With
Rick Jensen, Ms. MacDonald sang the Arlen/Harburg/Ira Gershwin "Let's
Take the Long Way Home" blended with the Arlen/Mercer "Let's Take
A Walk Around the Block". She then sang a stunning version of the
Styne/Cahn "Time After Time" that included the rarely heard verse.
MacDonald fully justified her merit for receiving the Julie Wilson
Award with the sheer beauty of this rendition. Her new show is currently
playing at HELEN'S RESTAURANT, CABARET & PIANO LOUNGE (169 Eighth
Avenue, NYC - 212-206-0609 - http://www.helensnyc.com/
) and has performances on Saturdays, October 29th, November 5th
at 9:30 pm.
Mr.
Smith came out and told about how all the singers used to come see
Mabel Mercer perform and often, when they had engagements elsewhere,
their managers had to tear them away from listening to Mabel and
get them to their engagements in another part of town. One of those
performers was Nina Simone who ordered her manager to leave the
club and she stayed. He then introduced Nina Simone's daughter,
Simone, who did a rousing version of the Arlen/Mercer "Come Rain
or Come Shine." She followed with a swinging version of the Arlen/Ted
Koehler "I've Got the World on a String" that was received with
wild enthusiasm by the audience and she had to take a second curtain
call.
After intermission,
Spider Saloff took the stage and scatted and bopped her way into
the Styne/Comden & Green "Just In Time." It worked and she went
for a big high note at the end that was wildly effective. She then
talked about an old Styne/Comden & Green song that was written for
a children's musical that Mary Martin appeared in. It was, of course,
Peter Pan. She announced the song was more pertinent today than
the day it was first performed and sang the seldom heard verse to
"Neverland." It was gorgeous and moving and pure excellence.
Rebecca
Spencer appeared and sang a bizarre rendition of the Arlen/Mercer
"I Had Myself a True Love" that had Porgy and Bess operatic riffs.
She followed with perhaps the most famous Arlen/Mercer collaboration,
"Blues In The Night." She sang it very slowly but really empathized
the "eee" sounds in the lyrics, ending with a wild high note on
the last word.
Larry Woodward
came out and said he was going to break the iron-clad
cabaret rule: never sing two ballads in a row. He announced he was
going to sing a Cy Coleman/Dorothy Fields song but then realized
that that one was going to be his second song. He drew a big blank
on his first song and had to dig for his song list to discover that
it was the Styne/Carolyn Leigh "Killing Time." He made a comment
that he was going to fail Cabaret 101, the course all cabaret performers
take to learn what not to do. He asked to audience to see if they
could see any traces of Sondheim in Leigh's lyrics. The rendition
was flawless. The Coleman/Fields "Too Many Tomorrows" from "Sweet
Charity" followed and it was superb too.
Natalie
Douglas came out and announced that when Arlen gave her first selection
to Ted Koehler when they were writing for the Cotton Club revues,
Arlen asked Koehler if it was "black enough." She sang a tender,
rocking rendition of "Satan's Little Lamb." She introduced the next
song by stating that it was a Styne/Bob Merrill song that everyone
but Styne, Merrill and Streisand wanted cut from the movie Funny
Girl. She went into a moving "People" that had no traces of Streisand's
version and was the most effective "People" I've heard since Julia
Murney (who took the same attack of ignoring
Streisand's version) did at the Funny Girl gala. Ms. Douglas' rendition
was thrilling, exciting, moving, everything that makes a fresh take
on a standard valid when it is done with care and meaning to the
lyrics and the melody. I would love to hear this again and hope
that one day Douglas records it. There is no question that Natalie
Douglas is one of the great interpreters of the Great American Songbook
today.
Opera singer
turned cabaret performer Sylvia McNair came out next and sang a
beautiful Arlen/Truman Capote "Sleeping Bee" with her clear legit
soprano. She followed with another one of Arlen's most famous songs,
the Arlen/Harburg "Over the Rainbow." Ms. McNair did an unusual
thing: for the seldom-heard verse and
the first stanza of the chorus, she sang without the microphone.
Her voice was clear and pure in the acoustics of the hall and I
was disappointed when she reverted to the mike for the rest of the
song. However, Ms. McNair's "Over the Rainbow" was flawless and
she did the last phrase "Why can't I?" without the familiar Garland
belt. She did it with the purest of legit high note and the performance
was all class and elegance.
The last
performer was Barbara Brussell who has been enjoying great success
with her recent Alan Jay Lerner show and CD. Her first number was
a rare Styne/Bob Merrill song that was in her Bob Merrill show several
years ago: "An Individual Thing." The song has beautiful lyrics
and a tender melody and was a highlight of the night. After she
sang it, she told how it was in the flop "Prettybelle,"
which closed on the road despite the starring presence of Angela
Lansbury and the direction of Gower Champion. She followed with
a wild version of Fields/Coleman "Where Am I Going," working the
large stage, playing with skill to the people in the boxes behind
and to the sides of her.
All in
all, it was an effective tribute show to Arlen, Fields, and Styne.
Of course, each of their repertoires could fill a full separate
evening.
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