Cabaret Review: Deano's back and Dean's got him

When I reviewed Dean Christopher’s Dean Martin tribute show, “Everybody Loves Somebody Some Time,” at the Blue Strawberry last March, I described it as “rock-solid entertainment.” Christopher brought it back to the Strawberry last Friday (September 24th) and, after seeing it again, I’m of no mind to change that assessment.

Dean Christopher as Dean Martin sings "Houston"
Photo by Chuck Lavazzi

The show was, for one thing, largely unchanged from last year. With one notable exception (see below) the song list was exactly the same. Christopher still has Martin's vocal quality and loose-limbed drunk act down pat. Pianist and music director Joe Dreyer is still the perfect musical and comic foil in his role as Kermit "Ken" Lane, who was the real Martin's pianist and music director on "The Dean Martin Show"—a fact which will surprise nobody who has seen Joe’s own cabaret act with his wife Rosemary.

In short, everything about “Everybody Loves Somebody Some Time” that made it so much fun last March was still true this past Friday. So rather than repeat all praise I heaped on it back then, I’ll just refer you back to that original review. Same songs, same great fun.

Instead, let’s talk about what was different, focusing on that addition to the song list. The response from the audience, many of whom were clearly regular followers of Christopher’s show, was enthusiastic as usual—so much so, in this case, that Christopher broke with tradition by performing an actual encore.

And not just any encore. It was the 1967 Bob Thiele (a.k.a. “George Douglas“ and George David Weiss hit “What a Wonderful World.” Unlike the rest of numbers in the evening, “What a Wonderful World” was never recorded by Dean Martin.  But it was an international hit for Louis Armstrong—the first of the four (count ‘em, four) singers that Christopher impersonated with great success while singing it (the other three were Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., and of course, Martin himself).

Dean Christopher and Joe Dreyer
Photo by Chuck Lavazzi

That was impressive enough. What made it even more so was the fact that the encore was entirely unplanned. Dreyer gave Christopher a good key (E-flat) and Christopher just took off with it while Dreyer improvised the accompaniment. Christopher does something similar in his “Rat Pack Christmas" show in which he sings “The Twelve Days of Christmas” as a dozen different Hollywood personalities, but that’s scripted in advance. This was purely off the cuff, which is really rather amazing.

The only fly in the ointment was the wireless body mic the Strawberry had provided, which insisted on dropping in and out at random intervals during the evening. It’s the sort of thing that will throw even the most seasoned performer off his stride and while Christopher coped with it gracefully (and in character, no less), it did cause the energy to drop at times while the sound tech tried, without much success, to fix the problem.

To quote a lyric from one of Martin’s hits, “ain’t that a hole in the boat?” Fortunately, the S.S. Dean Martin Christopher appears to be as unsinkable as Molly Brown and a fine time was had by all.

Dean Christopher returns to St. Louis this November and December at The Sheldon Concert Hall with his not-to-be-missed “Rat Pack” show; see his web site for details.

Cabaret, jazz, and other music events continue at The Blue Strawberry on North Boyle. Currently the club requires proof of vaccination and masking, except when eating or drinking, and tables are spaced far enough apart to inspire confidence. For more information, visit the Blue Strawberry web site.

This article originally appeared at 88.1 KDHX, where Chuck Lavazzi is the senior performing arts critic.

Review: Let's face the music--Debby Lennon shines in 'Songs for Nobodies'

Having seen Debby Lennon's astonishing performance in the Max and Louie production of Joanna Murray-Smith's one-woman show Songs for Nobodies, I am now convinced that Ms. Lennon can do anything. If she were to walk on water it wouldn't amaze me.

Debby Lennon as Pearl
Photo by John Lamb

In fact, she does something almost as miraculous in this show by playing 10--count 'em, 10--different roles in a completely convincing way. The fact that five of those roles are Judy Garland, Patsy Cline, Édith Piaf, Billie Holiday, and Maria Callas--legendary singers with unique vocal and performance styles--is just icing on that tasty cake.

Ms. Murray-Smith wrote Songs for Nobodies in 2010 as a vehicle for Bernadette Robinson, an Australian singer/actress noted for her skill as a musical impressionist. As such, it's a pretty tall order for actresses who lack Ms. Robinson's skills, which may explain why it hasn't made it to St. Louis until now. Where, after all, can you find someone who can credibly play those great divas as well as the five "nobodies" who connect with them (each of whom has a radically different accent and physical presence)?

The answer, as Judy Garland's character says in Meet Me in St. Louis, is: "Right here where we live. Right here in St. Louis."

Songs for Nobodies is technically a one-act play, running just under 90 minutes, but structurally it's a set of five short play/monolog hybrids, held together by a common theme: the consequences of serendipitous meetings between ordinary women (the "nobodies" of the title) and extraordinary singers. Sometimes one of the pair is changed, sometimes both (in one case without ever actually meeting), but their stories are always compelling and written with a remarkably good ear for the divergent voices of the characters.

The play opens with the story of Beatrice Appleton, an attendant at the women's washroom at an upscale New York hotel in 1963. Abandoned by her husband and suspecting that happiness is just the absence of misery, she's stunned when Judy Garland walks in "to take a pee." Beatrice notices that Garland's hem needs a stitch, and as she makes the repairs, Garland coaxes Beatrice's unhappy history from her. No stranger to romantic disasters herself, Garland sympathizes and begins to sing, a cappella, one of her signature tunes, "Come Rain or Come Shine." The lighting shifts, the band starts to play, and suddenly we're seeing full-metal Judy on stage. The transitions among Beatrice, real-life Judy, and stage Judy are handled so smoothly that the illusion of multiple actresses on stage is perfect.

Those amazing nobody-to-somebody transitions continue for the rest of the evening. The second story concerns a chance encounter between country star Patsy Cline and Pearl Avalon, a singer and usherette at the 1963 benefit concert in Kansas City, Kansas, on what turned out to be the last night of Cline's life. Then we meet Edie Delamotte, a librarian in contemporary England who discovers that she owes her very existence to the great French chanteuse Édith Piaf, who saved Edie's father from a trip to Dachau.

Debby Lennon as Piaf
Photo by John Lamb

Next it's back to NYC in the 1950s, where ambitious reporter Gwendolyn "Too Junior" Jones (so dubbed by her colleagues because she's constantly told that she's "too junior" for plum assignments) breaks out of the fashion section via an interview with Billie Holiday that includes an a cappella version of "Strange Fruit," the graphic depiction of a lynching that white America didn't want to hear. Finally, Irish nanny Orla McDonagh comes close to being seduced by Aristotle Onassis aboard his yacht until the sound of Maria Callas singing Puccini's "Visi d'arte" (from Tosca) casts a different spell--and ends the show.

The abruptness of that ending leaves Orla's story incomplete, but that small flaw is my only complaint about what is otherwise a very compelling script.

Along the way Patsy Cline sings "San Antonio Rose" and "Crazy." Piaf does "L'accordioniste" and (the one that made me tear up) "Non, je ne regrette rien" ("No, I regret nothing at all"). And Holiday gives us "Lady Sings the Blues" and "Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do," this time with the band.

None of those singers were really present, of course (they're all dead, to begin with), but Ms. Lennon's impersonations are so perfect that they might as well have been. As an Édith Piaf fan, I was especially taken with her ability to conjure up the shade of "La Môme Piaf" ("the little sparrow"), right down to those "gargled" r's that are characteristic of her French. Indeed, calling those performances "impersonations" is rather like calling a Tesla Roadster an automobile. Sure, it's accurate, but it hardly does the thing justice.

Backing Ms. Lennon up is a first-rate trio of local musicians led by pianist and music director Nicolas Valdez. The night I attended, Jake Stergos played bass with Keith Bowman on percussion, sitting in for Ben Wheeler and Micah Walker, respectively.

Applause is due as well to Dialect Coach Pamela Reckamp (a vital role in a show the requires multiple English accents and a very specific form of French) and Lighting Designer Tony Anselmo. Dunsi Dai's is simple and functional, assisted by Kevin Bowman's projections, which neatly set each scene and provided visuals to illustrate the individual stories. Pamela Hunt's direction moves everything along at a good pace and insures that sight lines are always clean.

It is, in short, a flawless production.

Debby Lennon's tour de force performance of Songs for Nobodies continues through Sunday, February 2nd, in the black box space at the Kranzberg Center at Grand and Olive in Grand Center. Catch it if you can; it's truly spectacular. Tickets (if any are still available) can be ordered at the Max and Louie Productions web site.

Chuck's Choices for the weekend of February 22, 2019

New on this week's hit list: Angels in America at Washington U., Milk Like Sugar at the Black Rep, and The Rat Pack is Back at the Fox.

Share on Google+:

---

New This Week:

---

The Performing Arts Department at Washington University presents Angels in America, Part 1: Millennium Approaches Fridays at 7 pm, Saturday at 2 and 7 pm, and Sundays at 2 pm, February 22 - March 3. "Perhaps Jack Kroll in Newsweek described Millennium Approaches best: "The most ambitious American play of our time: an epic that ranges from earth to heaven; focuses on politics, sex and religion; transports us to Washington, the Kremlin, the South Bronx, Salt Lake City and Antarctica; deals with Jews, Mormons, WASPs, blacks; switches between realism and fantasy, from the tragedy of AIDS to the camp comedy of drag queens to the death or at least the absconding of God." The performances take place in the Edison Theatre on the Washington University campus. For more information, call 314-935-6543 or visit pad.artsci.wustl.edu.

My take: I haven't seen the Washington University production, but if you haven't already experience this remarkable piece of theatre, I'm recommending that you do so purely on the strength of the script. As I wrote in my review of the 1996 tour of this show, Angels in America boasts some of the most intelligent and compelling dramatic and comedic writing to grace the American stage in decades.

---

Milk Like Sugar
Photo by Phil Hamer

The Black Rep presents Milk Like Sugar opening on Wednesday, February 13, and running through March 3. "Milk Like Sugar is an astute gut-wrenching observation of the impact of racism on African American youth. We see the cyclical nature of inherited trauma, the normalization of underfunded communities, the dire need for education that nurtures latent talent, childhood hunger, the categorization of Black youth as adults, and the injustice of the criminal system. The myth of self-determination and seeing those who cannot escape their circumstance as inferior is keeping us for mobilizing and tithing whatever time and talent we might have to give into those communities. This play affirms these children need us, just as much as we need them." Performances take place at the Hotchner Studio Theatre on the Washington University campus. For more information: theblackrep.org.

My take: Once again, the Black Rep presents an important new lay that tackles contemporary issues in a dramatically effective way. In his review for STLToday, Calvin Wilson calls this "an intriguing portrait of working-class life in the tradition of Lorraine Hansberry's 'A Raisin in the Sun' and John Osborne's 'Look Back in Anger'...In a culture that all too frequently demonizes African-American youth, 'Milk Like Sugar' is a much-needed and admirably nuanced response." "Director Nicole Brewer and her youthful, talented cast capture the essence of this convincing and thoughtful drama," writes Mark Bretz at Ladue News.

---

2015 cast of The Rat Pack is Back

The Fox Theatre presents The Rat Pack is Back Friday through Sunday, February 22-24, at 7:30. The Fox Theatre is at 527 North Grand in Grand Center. "What happens in Vegas...all started with The Rat Pack. This spirited show recreates one of the famous "Summit at the Sands" nights when the swingin', ring-a-ding group known as "The Rat Pack" was creating hipster legend with a free-wheeling, no-holds-barred nightclub act starring Vegas' four favorite sons: Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., Dean Martin and Joey Bishop." For more information: fabulousfox.com.

My take: "For those of us old enough to remember what these guys were like in their prime," I wrote in my 2015 review of this show's first local apparance, :this is high-grade nostalgia. For everybody else it's a glimpse at a kind of hokey and slightly risqué show-biz magic that is long gone, in a Las Vegas that had not yet become a family-friendly theme park." This will presumably have a different cast, but my experience with the various "Rat Pack" shows has been that the celebrity impersonation are usually very impressive--sometimes eerily so. Great Art this ain't, but it is high-end entertainment. and often that's enough.

---

Held Over:

---

Avenue Q
Photo by John Flack

The Playhouse at Westport Plaza presents the musical Avenue Q running through March 17 (extended from March 3rd). "Part flesh, part felt and packed with heart, AVENUE Q is a laugh-out-loud musical telling the timeless story of a bright-eyed college grad named Princeton. When he arrives in the city with big dreams and a tiny bank account, he has to move into a shabby apartment all the way out on AVENUE Q. Still, the neighbors seem nice. There, he meets Kate (the girl next door), Lucy (the slut), Rod (the Republican), Trekkie (the internet entrepreneur), superintendent Gary Coleman (yes, that Gary Coleman) and other new friends! Together, they struggle to find jobs, dates, and their ever-elusive purpose in life." The Playhouse at Westport Plaza is at 635 West Port Plaza. For more information: www.playhouseatwestport.com.

My take: A smart, hip, and very funny parody of Sesame Street, Avenue Q is also an entertaining (if R-rated) story of college-educated twentysomethings--both flesh and foam rubber--coming to grips with the economic, political and sexual facts of life. The show is good, not-so-clean fun and always worth seeing. This production is "outrageously funny" (Calvin Wilson, STLToday). "A blend of national and local talent brings zest, exquisite precision and rampant enthusiasm to this delightful version of the Tony Award-winning musical melange of puppeteered optimism at its finest," writes Mark Bretz at Ladue News.

---

The Crucible
Photo by Dan Danovan

Stray Dog Theatre presents Arthur Miller's The Crucible Thursdays through Saturdays through February 23. "Lies. Betrayal. Lust. In 1690s Salem, a young girl leads a Puritanical purge of witchcraft against a local farmer and his wife. As fear and excitement grow in the town, the accusations grow more ferocious and terrifying, until no one is safe, and the truth is obscured completely. Winner of the 1953 Tony Award for Best Play." Performances take place at The Tower Grove Abbey, 2336 Tennessee. For more information, visit straydogtheatre.org or call 314-865-1995.

My take: In a 1989 New York Times article reflecting The Crucible, Arthur Miller wrote, "Political movements are always trying to position themselves against the unknown-vote for me and you're safe." The relevance to contemporary politics could hardly be more obvious. Inspired in part by the 20th century witch hunts of the late Senator McCarthy, the play is a searing indictment of the power of mob mentality and the moral corruption of politicians who feed on it. Today the mob is on the Internet and social media, but the intellectually disreputable process is the same. I don't think it's coincidental that the last couple of years have seen a reawakening of interest in this work. In a review for STLtoday Calvin Wilson calls this a "stunning and hauntingly memorable production." "The play's four acts clock in at a total of 3.5 hours including three intermissions," writes Jacob Juntunen at KDHX, "but the quick pacing of Gary F. Bell's direction and the solid acting and design elements make the time fly by like binge watching four episodes of an online streaming drama." And, yes, I have a small part in it.

---

Farragut North
Photo by Patrick Huber

St. Louis Actors' Studio presents the political thriller Farragut North Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 3 pm through February 24. Performances take place at the Gaslight Theatre, 358 North Boyle. For more information call 314-458-2978 or visit stlas.org.

My take: Mark Bretz says this story of political intrigue on the campaign trail is "a fascinating political cautionary tale written by John Burroughs alumnus Beau Willimon, is a compelling and provocative story as told by director Wayne Salomon and his smart cast." "At a time when the absurdities of national politics are virtually unavoidable," writes Calvin Wilson at STLToday, "theatergoers might be wary of yet another reminder. But for anyone interested in how we got here, "Farragut North" offers a provocative and entertaining education." Mr. Salomon's cast includes some of our most reliable local actors.

---

The Hundred Dresses

Metro Theatre Company presents The Hundred Dresses through February 25 " Wanda Petronski, the new girl in Room 13, is a Polish immigrant who lives in a shabby house and doesn't have any friends. Every day she wears the same faded blue dress, but tells her new class-mates that she has a hundred dresses at home. Her classmates tease Wanda about her hundred dresses until one day she disappears from school. As guilt overtakes the children, they decide to find out what happened to Wanda and to make amends. But is it too late? Bullying, friendship and forgiveness are at the center of this play adapted from the beloved Newbery Honor Book by Eleanor Estes." The performance takes place at the Grandel Theatre, 3610 Grandel Square in Grand Center. For more information: metroplays.org.

My take: This 1998 stage adaptation of a 1945 Newberry Award-winning children's book deals with adult themes. "Yes, it is a children's play," writes Richard Green, [b]ut The Hundred Dresses contains all the elements, in story and characterization, of a more ambitious story." Mark Bretz at Ladue News agrees: "Metro Theater Company artistic director Julia Flood and her acting quintet do poetic justice to this sweet, affecting story by Eleanor Estes in a production tailored to children but with a message of tolerance and understanding important for all." At a time when hatred of the "other" is making a repellent comeback, this show seems very timely.

---

Oslo
Photo by Peter Wochniak

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis presents the drama Oslo running through March 3. "Winner of the 2017 Tony Award for Best Play. In 1993, two bitter enemies shocked the world by shaking hands and agreeing to work toward peace. This breathtaking drama tells the story of the secretive and precarious negotiations that made that moment possible. By focusing on the Norwegian couple who brokered talks between the Israelis and Palestinians, Oslo finds the unlikely story behind this historic event." Performances take place at the Loretto-Hilton Center on the Webster University campus. For more information: repstl.org

My take: The Oslo peace accords might not seem as the most likely subject for a successful play, but then, neither would nuclear physics, and that didn't stop Michael Frayn from writing a hit with Copenhagen. In fact, as Ann Lemmons Pollack writes, "how the accord came to be is a fascinating and very human story about how individuals can make a difference in the world...It's a fascinating play, well written and surprisingly funny." At Ladue News, Mark Bretz writes that "Steven Woof, The Rep's Augustin artistic director, makes his final directorial effort at the helm of The Rep a smashing success with this riveting, superbly acted and beautifully modulated production."

Review: Dialing for divas

Share on Google+:

The hazard of a show like Christina Bianco's Diva Moments, with its heavy reliance on celebrity impersonations, is that when the performer drops the other personas to let the audience see her own, it had better be in the same class as the people she's parodying so skillfully.

No worries. Ms. Bianco (who played he Gaslight Theatre Friday and Saturday, November 16 and 17) wisely started the show not as one of her many satirical personas but rather as her own dynamically entertaining self, with a take-no-prisoners performance of one of the great anti-torch song numbers of all time, "Wherever He Ain't" (from Mack and Mabel, which played the Muny here in St. Louis on its way to a 1974 Broadway failure). By first taking the stage as herself, she established her own strength as a solo performer and created a solid foundation for the brilliantly funny collection of diva impressions that made up the bulk of the show.

And what a remarkable array of spot-on accurate parodies those were. Ms. Bianco set the bar pretty high in her performance of Kander and Ebb's "Cabaret" as it might have been done by Barbara Streisand, Bernadette Peters, Judy Garland, Patti LuPone, Kristin Chenoweth, Julie Andrews, and (finally and most absurdly) Celine Dion. With just a few bits of body language and eerily accurate vocal mimicry, she perfectly captured the idiosyncrasies that characterized those legendary performers. I especially loved her Andrews, but they were all remarkable.

That could have been a tough bit to follow, but she and music director Brad Simmons wisely segued to a pair of quick comic sketches--Julie Andrews doing the Donna Summer hit "Hot Stuff" and Streisand emoting her way through the theme from Cheers--on their way to a delightful duet of Randy Newman's "Short People" that allowed Ms. Bianco to comment humorously on her own diminutive stature.

I don't want to suggest that the evening was all laughs, though. There was, for example, a lovely version of "Over the Rainbow" (sung both straight and as July Garland) that led without pause into a touchingly straightforward rendition of "When You Wish Upon a Star." And her performance of "Why Try to Change Me Now?," the 1952 Cy Coleman/Joseph McCarthy, Jr., number that has become something of a cabaret classic, perfectly captured the lyric's wry self-assessment.

Praise is also due to Mr. Simmons for his well-tailored arrangements, his vocal harmonies, and his willingness to go along for the ride during some of the more freewheeling moments in the show. Even he had to drop out, though, and let Ms. Bianco go a cappella in an improvised version of Bernstein's "Somewhere" as it might have been sung by Ethel Merman. Fortunately, her rapport with both him and the audience made it easy for everyone to go along for the ride.

I could go on, but you get the idea. "Diva Moments" was a very well-balanced mix of satire and sincerity that was a fine addition to the strong lineup of performers in the fall edition of Jim Dolan's Gaslight Cabaret Festival. The festival takes a brief holiday hiatus and then picks up again next month with "Storm Large's Holiday Ordeal." Consider yourself warned.

As for Christina Bianco and Brad Simmons, by the time you read this, they will have moved on to their next gig, but you can keep track of her world travels at her web site. It's chock full of videos and images that make it an entertaining destination all by itself.