Broadway star Sutton Foster (Thoroughly Modern Millie, Little Women, Shrek) started the evening off big last night and never let up. Her voice is the archetypical modern musical theatre staple—large, bright, rangy and capable of almost astonishing volume. This might work well in a large theater, but in an intimate setting the results were mixed.

Foster opened with Ellington/George/Hodge/James’s springy “I’m Beginning to See the Light” promisingly, but revved it up at the end as if it was the Grand Finale of Act One, rather than an appropriately sprightly curtain raiser.

The eternal soubrette, her pasted-on smile and wink at the audience was not the stuff that great cabaret is made of.  At the end of each number she tossed her head with an “oh I can’t believe I got through that” mock relief.  She has nothing to be relived about, if her goal was to impress with the sheer volume of her high notes. That is not to say that she did not sing softly at times, because she did so quite well, but any subtlety she possessed was underutilized.

She scored well in the comic numbers, especially Christine Lavin’s “Air Conditioner.” The lyric pertained to a girl who would rather put out for a cool room than a hot guy on an impossibly warm day. Her unbridled vivacity and comedic timing really put that number over. Frank Loesser’s “Warm Day” was a lovely gem with a beautifully harmonic arrangement by Musical Director/Pianist Michael Rafter.

Other classic songs were delivered with various degrees of success.  I found my mind wandering during a rather sophomoric rendering of the poignant missive “Once Upon a Time.”  Another tune that needs to be sung by a grown up is Sondheim’s “Being Alive.”

It was hard to believe her admitted age of 34 as her interpetations were so aggressively juvenile.  Some observers argue that an artist must have lived a large part of their life before having anything profound to offer, but it is not the amount of years lived as much as the oldness of the soul — Judy Garland at 12 had more going on than most adults of any age.

Cabaret is an intimate art form; while it is always nice to have a strong instrument, the performer needs to be willing and able to do more than just strut the finery to fulfill its mission. Foster has so much talent and success that it becomes a question of her personal necessity to fulfill the real demands of cabaret. Time will tell.

Sutton Foster returns to Feinstein's Monday, April 20.

Melody Breyer-Grell
Cabaret Scenes
April 6, 2009
www.cabaretscenes.org