Jan Brennan may be a newcomer to cabaret, but she certainly had the audience cheering her on the night we caught her at Don’t Tell Mama. It undoubtedly helped that most of the jam-packed audience were family or friends, but credit where credit is due. Her opener, acknowledging her origins, “Way Down Yonder in New Orleans” introduced the vocalist’s pleasing voice and strong vibrato. 

What followed was a recounting of her move to New York and the problems of the single girl in the big city in patter and in song, which kept the guffaws coming loud and clear.  Singles’ social angst can be a source of humor, if sometimes rueful, and she used it effectively.  True or assumed – she described her dates as “a procession of wonderful and pathetic men: a drunk, a pervert, and a slew of lawyers.” A spokesman, perhaps, for her contemporaries, Brennan sang of her need for “The Lies of Handsome Men,” Francesca Blumenthal’s gem, and of a fiancées panic, Sondheim’s “(I’m Not) Getting Married Today.” Also Cole Porter’s “The Physician,” a reticent suitor who “loved my epiglottis, but he never said he loved me,” and Brennan’s own unusual penchant, Heisler and Goldrich’s “(I Want Them) Bald.” David Friedman’s “My Simple Christmas Wish” was given as good a rendition, and as big a response, as it ever enjoyed. 

More subdued standards received appealing treatment, including Ervin Drake’s “It Was A Very Good Year” and “one of the songs that made me fall in love with cabaret,” Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein’s “The Song is You.”

Brennan’s experience as an actress and opera singer showed in a theatricality that was sometimes overdone. Clearly, she understood her songs and how to deliver them, but in the confines of a cabaret venue, tempering the dramatics would be even more effective.  And while one number, Jeanine Tesori and Dick Scanlan’s “14-G” – depicting the problem of a diva practicing in the apartment above – made good use of Brennan’s operatic trilling, she seemed to add it to the end of several other numbers just to remind everyone she could. ‘Twern’t necessary.

Musical Director Steven D. Cirillo accompanied.  Bobby Kneeland was the hand on lights and sound. 

Jan Brennan is a promising cabaret performer with the added benefits of being youthful and attractive.  We hope to see more of her.

Peter Leavy
Cabaret Scenes
April 3, 2008
www.cabaretscenes.org