With voice robust and energy percolating, Leslie Orofino infects the Metropolitan Room with Manhattan Madness, and she does it with her usual panache, optimism, and personality. Orofino works that stage, clicking on to her audience with natural ease. She is having fun and it shows.

Orofino swings into action with Irving Berlin's "Manhattan Madness" followed by Frank Loesser's "Guys and Dolls". It is the third song, however, "Sunday in New York" (by Peter Nero and Carroll Coates), that defines the show. Orofino settles down with the tempo, and sets us up for upcoming amusing patter about her experiences living in New York back in the day. She even stretches the boundaries of Manhattan eastward to Long Island, her hometown turf with "The Hamptons Blues" by Ronny Whyte and Jack Byrnes.

Orofino chooses her songs with care, and while she includes some familiar renditions from former shows, like "Soon It's Gonna Rain" (Schmidt and Jones) and Irving Berlin's "Let Yourself Go," they all fit the groove of her theme. Orofino is notable for bringing her infective playfulness and polish to songs like Bobby Troup’s Daddy and Alberta Hunter's "Handy Man," and she delves astutely into the heart of a soulful John Wallowitch tune, "I See The World Through Your Eyes." "Isn't This a Lovely Day" (Berlin) and Tony DeSare's "Let's Just Stay In" is a particularly smooth pairing.

Vocally, her sultry and warm low-pitch mezzo serves her well, but occasionally, her voice tires and she flattens her last notes. So much care, however, goes into her shows, like her top-notch accompanists Keith Ingham on piano, Boots Maleson on bass, and Rex Benincasa on drums -- and her own stage presence is so palpable -- that Leslie Orofino never fails to delight her audiences on Sunday, or any day in New York.

Leslie Orofino returns to the Metropolitan Room with Manhattan Madness on Sunday, Oct. 7 at 4 pm.

Elizabeth Ahlfors
Cabaret Scenes
September 23, 2007
www.cabaretscenes.org