What: Manilow ’73–’83
Where: The Kranzberg Center, St. Louis
When: March 3 through 6, 2010
Whether you’re a Fanilow or just a Fanolennie (I’ll only cop to the latter), there was much to admire in Lennie Watts’s Manilow ’73–’83 show at the Kranzberg March 3 through 6. Indeed, with a three-piece combo and a killer vocal trio accompanying him (“backing him” hardly seems adequate), Mr. Watts’s show was, if anything, a little too much to admire for the modest confines of the Kranzberg’s 80-seat cabaret space. I never thought I’d write these words but: this is a show that, with its glitz, high gloss and often higher decibel level, would actually have worked better in the Sheldon’s normally off-putting Savoy Ballroom.
I should confess up front that I am neither a devotee nor despiser of the songs Barry Manilow wrote and/or made popular. The man has been an irresistible force in American popular music and while some of the songs he made into million sellers are pretty cheesy stuff (“Mandy” comes immediately to mind), his own compositions display a high degree of craft and intelligence that’s impossible not to admire. So even though I would be happy never to hear “Can’t Smile Without You” (which, in all fairness, Manilow did not write) again, I can’t deny that I found the evening entertaining.
Yes, the adoration of the Fanilows in the audience sometimes made me feel like a party crasher, but if you’re going to attend a show entitled Manilow ’73–’83 you can hardly complain if it attracts lovers of Barry Manilow, can you?
Besides, Mr. Watts and his fellow performers made an awfully persuasive case for this material. Mr. Watts, as I noted in my review of his appearance at Savor two years ago, is an engaging mix of singer, actor, rock ‘n’ roller and stand-up comic who well deserves that label “tender dynamo” laid upon him by my fellow Cabaret Scenes contributor Elisabeth Ahlfors. He loves this music to bits, as he notes early in the show, for “the emotion, the theatricality and those damn key changes”. That love infused the evening with so much joy that only a die-hard Manilow hater could have come away un-touched.
A major contributor to the show’s success is music director and pianist Steven Ray Watkins. As he did in his 2007 appearance with Mr. Watts, Mr. Watkins proved to be a dynamic performer and canny arranger. The vocal lines for the back-up trio were so interesting that they sometimes stole focus from Mr. Watts and the band—or maybe it was just the precision and charisma of the singers. Dubbed “Lady Flash 2010” by Mr. Watts, the ensemble consisted of his New York collaborators Tanya Holt and former St. Louisian Angela Schultz and current St. Louisian Kay Love. All three women are impressive performers in their own right. As a group, they nearly stole the show.
Rounding out the solid septet were Jay Hungerford on bass and Jim Guglielmo on drums. It was a tight squeeze getting everyone up there—the women had to stand to one side, in fact—but the results were certainly impressive in a 1970’s retro way. Even John “JT” Taylor’s lights caught the rock concert rock concert/disco ambience.
Had Mr. Manilow been able to see the show, I expect he would have been pleased. The Fanilows certainly were and, ultimately, that’s the target audience. The rest of us were along for the ride, and it was mostly fun.
Rounding out March at the Kranzberg cabaret room are Katie McGrath’s Second Chances March 18 and 19; Joy Powell’s Feminine Standard on March 25; and my own show, Just a Song at Twilight: The Golden Age of Vaudeville, March 26 and 27. For tickets, surf on over to licketytix.com. The Cabaret St. Louis season continues April 7 through 10 with Eric Michael Gillett’s Wide –screen Songs From and About Movies; visit cabaretstl.org for details.
Finally, fans o' Lennie's can catch up with him at lenniewatts.com.
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