Cabaret offers performers a milieu that is unique in the entertainment industry. Because the stage is small, and audience contact so intimate, performers must possess more than a good voice; they need personal magnetism. It's called charisma. No performer can get to first base without it. It also helps if they're brilliant musicians with a wacky sense of humor while not taking themselves too seriously. That's entertainment. Welcome David Pellegrene and Beth Sacks.

They might have called their recent shows at the Music Box at Broadway Baby, Music Without Borders. She's a little bit opera. He's a little bit Broadway. Together, they sing the music of the night and cover a truck load of songs from all genres except rap. Collectively, they ferociously tear the rafters down like a Tsunami. With Pellegrene manning the piano with a belting lyric baritone and soprano Beth Sacks scaling the octaves with the drama of Callas and the warmth of Mama Cass, it all made for some thrilling musical moments and a night of campy fun.

Resembling a modern day Louie Prima and Keely Smith, Pellegrene and Sacks offered a loungy mix of sophistication & show-stopper tunes that included Pellegino's soaring "Listen To My Heart" by David Friedman and Sack's brilliant offering of that Lerner and Lowe warhorse," I Could Have Danced All Night" (ending on a high C) from My Fair Lady. Both were typical high points and received sustained ovations. A wistful duet on the Bergman/Legrand classic, "How Do you Keep the Music Playing?" proved they can excel on more gentle moments without fire and brimstone. Other highlights included: I" Know the Truth" (Aida,) "Mama," "I Dreamed A Dream" (Les Miserables), "The Dance," a raucous "Me and Bobby McGee" and a lush Phantom medley. All songs, albeit solos or duets, were impressively arranged and delivered with gusto. It's not that easy for big voices to build a home in cabaret. This duo built a landscape. Their back and forth patter was natural, non-scripted and very loose. While the set was basically unstructured, it was funny and the off-the-cuff non-sequiturs balanced the more serious moments. Their interpretive savvy keeps them on right side of an American Idol approach to big numbers where voices that are big and bland are valued over those with stronger personalities. In other words, each can shatter the walls when they want but they also know when to relax into a storytelling mode. This was most evident on Sack's flawless offering of "Someone Else's Story."

Mostly, it was real. Ultimately, it all revealed an honesty that eschewed the “precious” homilies that all too often permeates so many acts in cabaret today. These were real people with real voices that left their crowd yelling for more.

John Hoglund
Cabaret Scenes
September 21, 2008
www.cabaretscenes.org