Cabaret Review: We still get a kick out of Steve Ross

Thanksgiving weekend (November 26 and 27), Jim Dolan’s Blue Strawberry nightclub gave cabaret lovers something to be thankful for: two nights of the legendary cabaret singer and pianist Steve Ross. I was there for the packed Friday night house, and (to quote one of Ross’s favorite songwriters, Noël Coward), “I couldn’t have liked it more.”

Steve Ross

Ross has a long and happy relationship with St. Louis, going back to the early days of the Grandel Cabaret Series, where I first saw him two decades ago. Debonair, witty, and charismatic, Ross never fails to get straight to the heart of every song, whether it’s an obscure comic gem like Milton Ager and Jack Yellen’s “Hungry Women” (introduced by Eddie Cantor in his 1928 musical Whoopee!); a sentimental standard like Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin’s “Thanks for the Memory” (Bob Hope’s theme song, which he introduced with frequent co-star Shirley Ross in The Big Broadcast of 1938); or the smoky, late-night regret of the Kingston Trio hit “Scotch and Soda”. 

Without fail, Ross makes certain that you not only hear but actually listen to the lyrics – an essential skill for the cabaret artist. An evening with Steve Ross is an object lesson in why cabaret is such a vibrant art form.

Much of Ross’s latest show, Back on the Town, was likely familiar to fans. Many of his favorite songwriters were represented, including Coward, Cole Porter, the Gershwins (“George and his lovely wife Ira,” as a misinformed DJ is supposed to have said in the 1950s), Irving Berlin, and of course, the newly-departed Stephen Sondheim. The latter was represented only by “Send in the Clowns” (from A Little Night Music) but what a lovely performance it was.

There were some songs that were new to me as well—a reminder that Ross knows well how to assemble a show that mixes audience favorites with possible future favorites. In that category I’d include “My Circle of Friends” from the 2008 album Hallways by Carol Hall (best known for her musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas), with its sweetly sentimental thoughts on what Tales of the City's Anna Madrigal called one’s “logical family,” and “This Moment,” written by John Wallowitch and Bertram Ross for the autobiographical 1999 film of the same name. As someone with more years behind him than ahead, the lyric struck me as especially powerful: “It takes a life to realize / What life is all about / And life is all about this moment.”

And, happily, there were numbers by immortal French singer/songwriters like Charles Trenet (“La Mer,” done very much in the Trenet style) and Charles Aznavour (“Le Temps,” with English lyrics by Gene Lees). There was also, happily, Ross’s trademark instrumental medley of Edith Piaf favorites—always a hit with us fans. The Francophile feast included a song he co-wrote with Barry Day, “Whenever I Think of Paris.” It’s a wistful love letter to a city I adore as much as he obviously does.

Another notable item was Cole Porter’s popular “Anything Goes” with some new lyrics by screenwriter Joe Keenan. They were witty, to be sure, but I’m not sure all of Porter’s originals seem really need a rewrite to make them relevant: “The world has gone mad today / And good's bad today, / And black's white today, / And day's night today.” To say nothing of:

Just think of those shocks you've got
And those knocks you got
And those blues you got
From that news you got
And those pains you got
(If any brains you've got)
From those little radios.

Change that last line to, say, “From those angry talk shows” or “From social media prose” and everything old is new again.

“But I digress” – Tom Lehrer.

So, yeah, it was another charming and entertaining evening with one of cabaret’s leading lights. Thanks to Jim Dolan and the Blue Strawberry for bringing Steve Ross to town once again. Long may his light shine. Here in St. Louis, we still get a kick out of him.

Homecoming weekend with Steve Ross at the Gaslight Cabaret Festival

steveross.net / Stacy Sullivan

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Who: Steve Ross
What: An Evening With Steve Ross
Where: The Gaslight Cabaret Festival at The Gaslight Theatre, St. Louis, MO
When: October 24 and 25, 2014

Mabel Mercer Award–winning cabaret artist Steve Ross has a long and happy relationship with St. Louis, going back to the early days of the Grandel Cabaret Series. He was one of the first performers to be featured by Jim Dolan's Presenters Dolan organization when it got off the ground many years ago, so his appearance last weekend at Jim's Gaslight Cabaret Festival had something of the feel of a homecoming.

Titled "An Evening With Steve Ross," the show was essentially a cavalcade of the singer/pianist's "greatest hits." That meant plenty of Noel Coward and Cole Porter (always a welcome combination) along with some Jerome Kern, a brace of Great American Songbook standards, and even a bit of operetta towards the end. There was also the return of his trademark Edith Piaf instrumental medley (including classics like "La Vie en Rose," "Milord," and "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rein," which I'm thinking of making my theme song) and a couple of tunes from Lehar's "The Merry Widow" with the lyrics Lorenz Hart wrote for the 1934 film version.

A veritable cornucopia, in short. Yes, it ran a bit long at around an hour and forty minutes, but the packed house didn't seem to mind. I think that's because Mr. Ross is an engaging, elegant, and charming performer in the mold of Noel Coward, whose green velvet smoking jacket (or, as he refers to it, his "non-smoking jacket") he now wears, courtesy of the Noel Coward society. It's axiomatic among cabaret performers that there's no place to hide in this field; the audience will invariably see who you truly are. Mr. Ross is truly a smart, generous, and generally nice guy, and that comes across on stage.

Those who have seen Mr. Ross during one of his dozen or so previous appearances in St. Louis know that he is not of the "this is my life" school of cabaret. For Mr. Ross, it's all about the music. He intertwines his singing with erudite and amusing commentary on the songs and their creators. Did you know, for example, that Noel Coward's wistful waltz ballad "Some Day I'll Find You" was the theme song for the long-running radio and early TV detective show "Mr. Keene, Tracer of Lost Persons?"* Or that the lyricists for that quintessential 1936 hymn to the City by the Bay, "San Francisco," were a pair of refugees from Nazi Germany?

An evening with Steve Ross, it seems, is not only entertaining, it's informative as well.

Steve Ross's appearances here are over, but the fall edition of the Gaslight Cabaret Festival continues through November 22 at the Gaslight Theater, 358 North Boyle. For more information, visit the web site. Note that parking around the theater is at a premium, so you might want to give serious thought to arriving early and having dinner or drinks at the West End Grill and Pub, which is attached to the theater.

*Or, for you Bob and Ray fans, "Mr. Trace, Keener Than Most Persons."

Isn't it romantic?

Who: Steve Ross
What: Rhythm and Romance
Where: The Kranzberg Center, St. Louis
When: November 26 and 27, 2010

Renowned cabaret artist Steve Ross has a long and happy relationship with St. Louis, going back to the early days of the Grandel Cabaret Series. He was one of the first performers to be featured by Jim Dolan's Presenters Dolan organization when it got off the ground several years ago, and he even made a special trip to Mound City this past February to participate in a tribute cabaret for the late Chris Jackson. It's only appropriate, then, that he chose our fair city for a trial run of his latest show, Rhythm and Romance, which opens a three-week run at the Algonquin Hotel's Oak Room in January. Judging from the audience response, it was a good choice.

If you've seen Mr. Ross before, you already know that he's the very personification of savoir faire: a graceful, elegant, and charming performer in the mold of Noel Coward, whose green velvet smoking jacket (or, as he refers to it, his "non-smoking jacket") he now wears, courtesy of the Noel Coward society. Even when Mr. Ross made the occasional musical misstep (perhaps inevitable with a new show), his love of the material and his ability to connect with the audience carried him through and earned him a standing ovation at the end.

The evening opened with a lively medley combining the title song with Jimmy McHugh and Ted Koehler's "Spreadin' Rhythm Around" (both introduced in 1935 by Ella Fitzgerald and "Fats" Waller, respectively) and bits of Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm" and "Fascinatin' Rhythm". Mr. Ross followed that up with a set about seduction (Flanders and Swann's droll "Have Some Madeira, M'Dear") and marriage both sentimental (Kander and Ebb's "Married" and Kern and Hammerstein's "The Folks Who Live on the Hill") and sarcastic (Rodgers and Sondheim's "We're Gonna Be All Right", from Do I Hear a Waltz?).

The rest of the show continued in a similar vein, examining the varieties of romance, both comic and tragic. There was, as you might expect, plenty of Porter and Coward, but there was also Jacques Brel's dark "Fanette and I" and Ivor Novello's "And Her Mother Came Too", a comic look at a true "helicopter parent". There was even a set on the romance of travel, with Bob Merrill's rarely-heard "Mira" (from Carnival!) and a pair of Coward gems: "Sail Away" (from the 1960 flop of the same name) and, from 1955, the rudely hilarious "A Bar on the Piccola Marina", about the sexual awakening of the formerly staid Mrs. Wentworth Brewster.

As always, Mr. Ross intertwined the music with erudite and amusing commentary on the songs and their creators. Did you know, for example, that Noel Coward's wistful waltz ballad "Some Day I'll Find You" was the theme song for the long-running radio and early TV detective show Mr. Keene, Tracer of Lost Persons?* Or that Mr. Coward (who was a close friend of Cole Porter) responded to questions about a 1962 trip to a clinic for "rejuvenation shots" of sheep hormones by quipping "I've got ewe under my skin"?

Well, now you do.

If there's one lyricist who understood both the rhapsody and rue of romance, that would surely be the late Lorenz Hart, so it's only appropriate that Mr. Ross's show featured a generous helping of Rodgers and Hart numbers, including "My Romance" (from Jumbo, 1935) and "Glad to Be Unhappy" (On Your Toes, 1936). The set was punctuated by some dry-eyed looks at romance form Dorothy Parker – also very appropriate in a show destined for the Algonquin, where Ms. Parker was a regular guest at the fabled literary Round Table.

The show concluded with Mr. Ross's trademark Edith Piaf instrumental medley, followed by an encore that briefly recapped "Rhythm and Romance" and then segued into an affecting rendition of the 1934 classic "For All We Know". And a splendid time was had by all.

For more information on the peripatetic Mr. Ross, visit his web site at steveross.net. For more information on upcoming cabaret shows at the Kranzberg Center, visit The Presenters Dolan at presentersdolan.com and the Cabaret St. Louis site at cabaretstl.org.

*Or, for you Bob and Ray fans, Mr. Trace, Keener Than Most Persons.