Maureen McGovern is such an established cabaret star that to review one of her shows almost seems redundant. She is lovely and elegant, possessing a magnificent soprano voice whose volume she can progressively raise without sacrificing any of its purity. She can sing a cappella without missing a note; and vocalize the "Silly Syllables" of the '60s as if they were scat. Her patter is smooth and witty, such as her play on a Dylan Thomas poem when she says of her fellow baby boomers that "we will not go gentle into that early bird special." The children of the baby boomers, or at least those able to appreciate their parents' music, might say of her, "She's awesome."

Her show at the Metropolitan Room, A Long and Winding Road (sounds like a song from the '60s) is intended to demonstrate that the songs of Joni Mitchell, Jimmy Webb, Carole King, James Taylor, Bob Dylan, John Lennon and others, do indeed make up what the New York Times called the second half of the Great American Songbook. Some of what she sang accompanied by Jeff Harris on piano and Jay Leonhart on bass was very familiar, such as "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," others such as "Rocky Raccoon" less so, although the audience on the evening we caught the show sang along. It was clearly nostalgia night.

But, as the title of one of her songs proclaims, "The Times They Are a Changin'." As someone who started out as a folk singer, McGovern has created a show out of the music of her youth, songs loved by those born, as she was, between 1946 and 1964. In terms of music history, this is a very short period of time, and it is not clear that these songs can claim to constitute as much as half of the Great American Songbook. And it is possible to ask whether too much of the show rests on nostalgia. There will be those who will want to hear McGovern sing the first half of the songbook, as they have heard her before; and those used to a rougher world than the phrases "far out" and "groovy" are adequate to describe, for whom Neil Sedaka will seem as antiquated as Cole Porter, and just about as enthralling. Still, for the nostalgia, for the songs, many of which are wonderful, and most of all for McGovern, catch this show! It will return to The Metropolitan Room on February 21-23 at 7:30 pm.

Barbara Leavy
Cabaret Scenes
February 13, 2008
www.cabaretscenes.org