Opening the new season of the Metropolitan Room, Penny Fuller's joyful rendition of "Do I Hear a Waltz?" (Rodgers and Sondheim) tells it all, the story of Penny Fuller and her music:

"I want more than to hear a waltz,
I want you to share it,
'cause oh, boy, do I hear a waltz!"

"Do I Hear a Waltz?" is the fourth selection in her show, Friends in Deed, composers Fuller has known and worked with. "You will not hear Kern or Gilbert and Sullivan," the slim, youthful theatre vet advises wryly. What her audience hears includes some of the American Songbook favorites and some out-and-out great tunes.

While she opened with Rodgers and Harnick's "No Song More Pleasing" and "Sing Happy" by Kander and Ebb, Fuller's show takes on steam with her second song, "Where or When" (Rodgers and Hart). With her talent for connecting with the audience, the tune makes perfect sense. Penny Fuller slyly narrows her eyes, scans the audience, and settles on one person, and she fixes the song straight at him. She is exemplary in portraying moods and nuances of her selections, interpreting with intelligence and emotion. She aims a teasing take of "A Lotta Livin' To Do," and finds the right target for "The Woman for the Man Who Has Everything," with female-friendly lyrics written for her by Lee Adams.

Recalling her role of Carrie in Carousel, Fuller's youthful "Mr. Snow" is canny and ebullient. She brings later life's experiences to a sequence of torch songs: "One For My Baby" (Arlen and Mercer), "My Old Flame," a great pop song by Johnston and Coslow, with guitar intimacy by Louis Tucci, astutely followed up with "I Don't Remember You" (Kander and Ebb), and a defiant "No More" and "Well, I'm Not" (Strouse and Adams).

The last quarter shines with "One Hallowe'en," which Fuller sang as Eve from Applause. Heartbreaking is her rendition of Billy Goldenberg/Marilyn and Alan Bergman's "Job Application" and "Fifty Per Cent" from Ballroom. It makes one yearn for a revival of this touching show.

Pianist Paul Greenwood and bassist/guitarist Tucci support Penny Fuller in this perceptive, wry, dramatic, memorable program of many flavors and colors. Barry Kleinbort directed a show that flows into moods of light and dark. Kleinbort also contributes "A Sondheim Song," his tongue-twisting pastiche of the Sondheim canon, and his beautiful "Time," written with Joseph Thalken, ends the show on a contemplative note.

Penny Fuller brings Friends in Deed to the Metropolitan Room on September 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.

Elizabeth Ahlfors
Cabaret Scenes
September 5, 2007
www.cabaretscenes.org