The dapper Jim Speake was more than halfway through his Cy Coleman show at Don’t Tell Mama, when he got to his title number, “I’m a Brass Band,” and suddenly blossomed like a flower hit by morning sunshine. He’d given indications of a submerged vivacity earlier on, revealing glimmerings of that potential with his opener, “Hey, Look Me Over, and more with the spirited Coleman/Michael Stewart tune from Barnum, “Thank God I’m Old,” nicely enhanced by the Steven Ray Watkins atmospheric, circus-influenced arrangement.

Paradoxically, however, Speake’s Cy Coleman song list often tended to minimize the energy and strong voice lurking in him but rarely released. “I Never Met a Man I Didn’t Like” from The Will Rogers Follies, or “The Colors of My Life,” from Barnum aren’t made for belting. As contrasts to the livelier numbers, they may have served a purpose, but the bigger renditions where were Speake shone. His “The Rules of the Road” and “I Walk a Little Faster” were credible, but also encouraged Speake to keep the energy under wraps.

There were some opportunities that slipped away. Speake could have put a lot more intensity into “Use What You Got” from The Life, “It’s Not Where You Start” from Seesaw and his encore, “Here’s to Us” from Little Me. And he needed to be more comfortable with (more familiar with, perhaps) his biographical patter about Coleman and about himself.

There’s a showman inside Jim Speake that revealed itself too few times, partly due to the chosen songs, partly due, it seemed to this reviewer, to a lack of confidence about letting it out. The cure may be in just doing it.

Steven Ray Watkins was at the piano, with Fred Kennedy on drums and Matt Wigton on bass. Lennie Watts directed. Denise Andersen was tech director.

Peter Leavy
Cabaret Scenes
October 20, 2008
www.cabaretscenes.org