Vickie Phillips, a Bistro Award winning performer, has been working on her latest show, A Singer’s Journey: the songs of Jacques Brel, Kurt Weill and Charles Aznavour, for quite some time.  It is performed in two acts: “A Musical Discovery” telling how she discovered music and the songs of these composers.  The Second Act is “The Journey Beyond the Music” – her trips abroad to the land of her musical idols and the discovery of her Jewish roots.  As a cabaret act, it could be shortened with no intermission, but the show is being developed as an off-Broadway show, so this is a showcase to that aim. Well- written and directed by Bob Ost, the show is very powerful. Music director Gerry Dieffenbach on piano, accompanies Vickie superbly, sings beautifully and is a great asset to the show.

Vickie’s journey is quite moving.  It begins in Pennsylvania as a child where she was abandoned by her parents and brought up by her grandmother in a cluttered, unhappy environment.  What saved her was music and she doesn’t remember a time that she wasn’t singing.  Vickie opened with three Brel songs, “Brussels,” “I Loved” and the jaunty “Madeleine,” and you can feel her passion for this material.  She then talked about how Aznavour songs affected her life and performed a wistful “Yesterday When I Was Young” contrasted by the fierce “Salilor Boys.”  We were then introduced to Kurt Weill with a wonderful medley of selections from his many standards.  A highlight was Weill/Ira Gershwin’s collaboration of “One Life to Live” followed by Brel’s exciting“Carousel.”

The second act was quite intense with Brel’s “The Desperate Ones,” “The Port of Amsterdam,” “Pirate Jenny” and other Brel favorites such as ”Jackie,” “Marieke” and ending with “If We Only Have Love.” Carl Riehl’s accordian playing added to the European atmosphere and worked for these songs. Not only is Vickie a terrific singer who performs this material as if it were written for her, but she has thoroughly investigated these songs and acts them out with a strong point of view.  For people who are not familiar with these outstanding 20th Century composers, it is a lesson in their music and for those fans of Brel, Weill and Aznavour, you will discover something new in Vickie’s interpretation.

Linda Amiel Burns
Cabaret Scenes
September 6, 2008
www.cabaretscenes.org