Phil Geoffrey Bond’s continuing series, Voices from the Great White Way, was host to Mary Bond Davis, best known for her Broadway roles in Jelly’s Last Jam and as Motormouth Maybelle in Hairspray. She’s a big, brassy, Broadway baby with a set of pipes that could blow the roof off, and that’s what happens. We love every little nuance, suggestion, shimmy and shake. She was slick and sultry on Fred Barton’s “Pour Me a Man,” with Mr. Barton almost ringside, but much more restrained with gravelly, deep vocal colorations on the heartfelt ballad “You’ve Changed.” If it’s signifyin’ jive you’re cravin’, then you’re lookin’ for Oscar Brown, Jr.’s “Signifyin’ Monkey,” a song with a whole lotta lyric about a lion, elephant and that monkey! And she said this was the G-rated version! Davis goes political for a short time as a combatant on the side of justice, promoting that four-letter-word…L-O-V-E, following with “Who Have You Loved Today?”

There’s no doubt that Mary Bond Davis is more at home as a dastardly doll singing “Dieter’s Prayer” or “What Kind of Girl Do You Think I Am?” Together with pianist Ian Herman, they kept the joint jumpin’!

Sandi Durell
Cabaret Scenes
June 1, 2009
www.cabaretscenes.org