Kate Shindle, an affable, talented Miss America of 1998, revved up her inner beauty and joined forces with musical director John McDaniel for one night at Birdland. Because she always had an affinity for the standards, they decided the standards would be her focus. Zeroing in even more, as a five-year-old Shindle was drawn to the torch songs she heard her mother sing, so her selections here were largely from the victim side of the songbook.

Shindle has a fairly strong voice with a metallic edge. She had fun with jazz tunes like "Slap That Bass" and was playful with a rare Sondheim tune, "Uptown Downtown," (Marry Me a Little) referring to ''Hyphenated Harriet, the nouveau from New Rochelle.'' Shindle gave a cute flair and energy to a medley of show tunes she felt were torch songs for their decades. These included "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" (Promises, Promises), "I Don't Know How to Love Him" (Jesus Christ Superstar), and "Move" (Dreamgirls). Wrist-slashers, any of them? No.

And that's where the problem lay. The torch songs Shindle was celebrating call for study and interpretation. Unfortunately, while her voice is trained, she is not trained for nuance. She did not delve into the meaning of the songs and she presented them with little shading, using her hands and face instead of her voice. "Black Coffee" (Sonny Burke and Paul Francis Webster) reflected no indication what the song is about and what it means to her in today's world. In addition, she often honed in on the microphone, and if she found the opportunity to belt, she went for it. In her selections, including "Blues in the Night" (Arlen and Mercer), she sang the tune, not the intent of the lyric:

"My momma don' tol' me – Son..." This point calls for a drop. His momma is talking. Even a female version of this song demands attention be paid. Attention was not paid by Shindle until the segment in the song when she could belt.

Kate Shindle frequently works in the theater and she has the intelligence and sensibility to find the subtext of these songs she loves. A cabaret calls for intimacy and communication, and in this show, both were missing.

Elizabeth Ahlfors
Cabaret Scenes
March 23, 2009
www.cabaretscenes.org