Not many women have the talent (or the chutzpah!) to open a show with Stephen Schwartz’s “Defying Gravity” from Wicked, but Lisa Viggiano can and does. Clearly, no one has told her it’s risky to start a show with an eleven o’clock number, but Viggiano sails into it with a cool bravado and vocal ease that will make you sit up and take notice. My advice for the rest of her show? Remain sitting up, for Viggiano is a singer and performer you’ll want to savor.

Recently relocated back to the East Coast (New Jersey) from the decadent environs of the West Coast (San Francisco), Viggiano possesses a youthful beauty coupled with an amazing sets of pipes she shows off to superb effect under the close tutelage of musical director extraordinaire, Christopher Marlowe, and director, Scott Barnes. Whether she’s singing a ballad like “Surrey with the Fringe On Top,” a comedy number like Christine Lavin’s “It’s a Good Thing He Can’t Read My Mind” or a contemporary song like Tim DiPasqua’s “You,” Viggiano radiates an authentic quality other singers would do well to emulate. And, of course, there’s that voice. When it goes soaring into its brassy belt in “Darktown Strutter’s Ball” or at the end of a medley of “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” and “Melancholy Baby,” it will leave you breathless, wondering if she ever played Fanny Brice in Funny Girl. And when it turns warm and introspective, such as in Menken & Ahrens “A Place Called Home” or her own composition “Grateful, Honored, Blessed,” written with Marlowe from their collection of songs for children (Baby’s Keepsake Lullabies – Songs to Sleep By, available at cdbaby.com), it resonates with a sweetness that’s palpable.

Fighting a tiny bit of a cold (which she sang through like a pro) when I caught the first half of her current run at The Duplex, if there’s one area Viggiano could work on as a performer it would be her patter which isn’t as relaxed and natural as her singing. To be sure, she’s a natural comedienne and her stories are charming but she seems a bit hesitant and unsure of herself in the ‘talking department.’ It’s understandable she might be a bit nervous, being back in front of an audience again having been preoccupied recently raising two little boys, but she shouldn’t be. Viggiano just needs to let the joy and assuredness that fills her singing carry over into her love affair with the audience. After all, the minute she opens her mouth to sing we’re putty in her hands.

Lisa Viggiano – Live at the Duplex returns to The Duplex (61 Christopher Street; 212-255-5438) on Sunday, October 12 at 4:00 pm and Friday, October 17 at 7:00 pm.

David Hurst
Cabaret Scenes
September 28, 2008
www.cabaretscenes.org