Victoria Clark, appearing as part of the Kennedy Center’s Barbara Cook’s Spotlight series, made the Terrace Theater feel as intimate as a living room.  Actually, as intimate as a living room at the end of a party when all the boring guests are gone and just the good friends remain.

She and music director Ted Sperling used the occasion to celebrate a professional partnership of nearly thirty years. The two reprised their first collaboration, Berlin’s “Pack Up Your Sins and Go to the Devil,” that they performed while undergraduates at Yale.  As a matter of fact, Clark circulated a college photo of the two doing that number throughout the audience during the show.

Highlights of the evening included an ever-modulating version of “What More Do I Need?” arranged by Jeff Blumenkrantz as well as his song “Toll,” a tale of unrequited love on the New Jersey Turnpike.  Clark concluded with a stunning performance of “Fable” from her notable outing in The Light in the Piazza.

Clark has a special talent for taking extremely complex material and using her considerable gifts and technical ability to render a performance that seems effortlessly simple, cogent, and straightforward.  And she wraps it all up in a warm, approachable package that welcomes in the audience at every moment.  Similarly, Sperling’s longstanding collaboration with Clark allows him to act as an engaging stage partner as well as a seamless musical presence.

Michael Miyazaki
Cabaret Scenes
December 6, 2008
www.cabaretscenes.org