The four reviews that follow are all from nightclub performances that recently took place at The Metropolitan Room on West 22nd Street. We mention this because the opportunity to hear live nightclub entertainment in rooms in which a middle class New Yorker might be able to pay the cover and minimum without having to sell blood have dwindled to a precious few. While, happily, the glass ceiling at the big rooms (Feinstein's, The Oak Room, and the Café Carlyle) are beginning to crack and in-the-trenches cabaret stars are beginning to get some play dates in those famous venues, the fact is that the cornerstone clubs that develop and nurture talent are becoming few and far between.
The problem—surprise—comes not from the poor economy but from a poor economic model. With rare exceptions, cabaret is designed to be a money-losing proposition for its practitioners. Worse, cabaret performers, as a rule, embrace their misfortune and do everything, it seems, to make sure they cannot possibly turn a profit. Isn't it instructive that cabaret's biggest and most successful stars, the people who work all the time, usually work with just a piano or, at most, a piano and bass player? They don't use a big band with lots of musicians who must be paid whether there are twelve people in the audience or one-hundred-fifty. And this is just the tip of the madness that permeates our little (and shrinking) world of cabaret. Simply put, the only way cabaret is going to flourish is if it provides a means by which both the clubs and the people who perform in them can make a dollar.
More on this in future columns. In the meantime, here are four reviews from shows in one club that is, indeed, flourishing—thanks to smart booking and a reputation for excellence ...
Spider Saloff, a jazz singer from Chicago who makes the occasional and much anticipated trip to New York, is in town for just two shows, one of which was last night and the other tonight (May 28) at 9:45 PM. Her show is a tribute to Cole Porter and, despite occasionally scatting instead of singing Porter's exquisite lyrics, this show honors Porter with a sense of fun, some very fine interpretations of his songs, and wonderful musicianship (her band consists of Steve LeSpina on bass and Tony Monte on piano).
Saloff opens with "Night and Day" and gives real emotional bite to the song, as well as intensity to a ballad like "I Concentrate on You." She's utterly charming with the novelty number "Tale of the Oyster," informing us that the original title of the number was "Song of the Scampi." If she misses the sad desperation of "Love for Sale" and sings it strictly for its jazz potential, she more than makes up for it with her amusing take on "The Laziest Gal in Town," complete with Marlene Dietrich impression. By the time she reaches the end of the show, with an emotional remembrance of her late husband, beautifully etched in music with her rendition of "I've Got You Under My Skin," Spider Saloff has you won over.
You will hardly find a young male performer in cabaret with more talent, fire, and physical abandon than Rob Langeder. In his recently concluded show, Any Place I Hang My Hat ..., Langeder shows off his musical chops in one number after another. But he does so at a considerable expense. Performing in front of a rockin' five piece band, The Fortune Five led by Fortune Esposito, Langeder had to be miked at such a high decibel level to be heard over the band that the vocals were, at times, painfully loud. In a larger room, a booming show like that can be energizing. In an intimate cabaret room like the Metropolitan Room, the sound is so overwhelming that the audience simply becomes benumbed from the oppressive assault. One wishes that Langeder would simply do a show with only a piano and give himself the opportunity to find the simple beauty in his voice.
Speaking of beautiful voices, Phillip Chaffin recently performed at the Metropolitan Room to celebrate his new CD Phillip Chaffin: When the Wind Blows South. Presenting a program that included a fair number of unusual, rarely performed (at least in cabaret) tunes that connected with Chaffin's sense of his home in the American Southland, the show was a constant revelation. Chaffin's patter was, to be kind, less than slick, but his singing more than carried the show; his voice is masculine, secure and full of warmth and tone. The CD, on the record label that he owns with Tommy Kraker, PS Classics, is something you'll likely enjoy very much. We certainly do.
Finally, the great Annie Hughes came into town and performed just one night only at the Metropolitan Room on May 21st. Bringing a winning combination of musical comedy skills and autobiographical gravity to the evening, she gave evidence of what a cabaret show ought to be.
Hughes lives out in the country—literally—in Wisconsin. She comes in to New York periodically to remind us all that she is alive and well and even thriving. Her cabaret show explained, in part, her journey first to New York and then to Wisconsin, but it was grounded at all times in her relationship with her parents. Painting a warm and loving portrait in patter and song, this was a special show.
