When Loli Marquez-Sterling shakes up a Cuban daiquiri, take care, it packs a strong punch. You can say the same for Loli Marquez-Sterling. In her latest show at the Metropolitan Room, Shaken Not Stirred, she enters the room to a hearty laugh track. She packs more musicians on the cabaret stage than you think it will hold, and yes, the volume raises the roof. Strike up the band with the infectious salsa rhythms of "Rie Llora" (Osorio and George), heating up your bloodstream and energizing your inner rhythms. It's cocktail time and the drinks are Cuban.

When Loli starts, she doesn't look back. Her music comes from within, strong as a Mojito and hot, hot, hot as café Cubano. Her music, her ebullience and the patter about her life, including her wish for a Cuba Libre after the reign of Fidel Castro, are synthesized in "Yo Vivere" (Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive"), straight up Latin, no disco. The Latin influence lives deep in Loli's soul and steers the show. You get to know a lot about Loli, her Cuban-born parents, her career and her romantic ups and downs.

Directed by Linda Amiel Burns, Shaken Not Stirred reveals a knockout singer who is charismatic and playful. Her patter leads easily into the songs. When she got rid of ex-lovers, she "Put 'Em In a Box" (Cahn and Styne), a big band favorite flavored with Loli's own musical mojo. The spiritual "Babaji" (Rick Davies/Roger Hodgson) is an Eastern flavored musical search for answers. She muses over Rufus Wainwright's "Complainte de La Butte," her vibrato a neat fit for the French words. She has her own sound, even for familiar songs like "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes," from Pinocchio. Loli spent years as a "super" in the Metropolitan Opera, telling all in "Just a Super," original clever lyrics to Craig Carnelia's "Just a Housewife."

The show is well put together, but I look forward to hearing more ballads by Loli, who shows a sensitivity as well as her confidence and good sense of humor. The overabundant patter encompasses a span of information, and the band, certainly energizing, can be overpowering for listeners sitting close to the stage.

Music director/arranger/pianist Oriente Lopez has the jazz chops to create entire worlds within each arrangement. His original song, "Do You Like It," gets a percussion punch from Vicente Sanchez and Richie Gonzales on drums. Richard Padron has some lovely guitar moments and Albert Luesink's trumpet is a blast of Latino brass. Ariache Trujillo and Luis Villabon were perking on vocal backup.

Viva Loli! This Cuban firecracker's anthem might be Victor Daniel's "My Vida Es Un Carnival." "It's time to party and everyone is invited."

Elizabeth Ahlfors
Cabaret Scenes
April 19, 2009
www.cabaretscenes.org