Cabaret returned to St. Louis a dozen or so years ago as a way to fill the Grandel Theatre's fall schedule.  Some of the country's top performers appeared in a setting that was more concert than conventional cabaret. But if they were good in the Algonquin Room, they were good in the Grandel.

Now, St. Louis performers, finally, are taking to cabaret. Credit in large part Tim Schall, who's brought leading cabaret performers to town to conduct workshops the last couple of years. Credit local performers, who have flocked to the workshops and taken up the challenge of creating their own evenings of song and talk. Credit Jim Dolan, whose The Presenters Dolan has added these local performers to the list of imported artists he presents.

And it hasn't hurt that we now have, in The Kranzberg in Grand Center, an intimate room expressly designed – and well designed – for cabaret.

It's also a good sign for the future of this genre that as familiar local faces have started performing, the average age of the audience members has dropped down noticeably from the most advanced ranks of the AARP demographic, where it stood in the past.

Unless I've missed someone, the local cabaret performers have all graced the stages of local theater companies, often in musicals. Such is certainly the case with the most recent entertainer at The Kranzberg. Kay Love just appeared in Quilters with the Avalon Theatre Company, and before that she'd been seen on just about every stage in the St. Louis area.

You don't get cast that often unless you're good.

And Kay Love is good. She looks great, she sounds great, she can be subtle or broad in her acting and she does it with conviction.

Cabaret is not quite the same as theater, even musical theater. The pipes are equally good in either setting. And you're performing in both, and even, perhaps, acting. But in cabaret, the role you're acting is you yourself. You have no character to hide behind, no other actors to share the burden, no suspenseful story to rivet the audience's interest.

Love seemed a little stiff and a little tentative at the beginning on Saturday night. And the between-songs patter, thoughtfully and cleverly put together, sounded a little canned. But she appeared to relax and loosen up as the evening wore on. A warmly receptive audience can have that effect. They were enjoying their time with Love.

And time with love it was. Taking advantage of the name she picked up when she got married, Love called her program But First, Love. Romantic love came first, with standards such as “My Romance,” “My White Knight,” “I Only Have Eyes for You,” and “This Can't Be Love.”

Other songs brought in other kinds of love, like love for family. These were often less familiar numbers, such as Amanda McBroom's touching piece about her father, a minor actor in the movies. The ruefully funny “Crossword Puzzle” touched on the little irritations that can gnaw away at love. “I Remember Butter” hilariously pondered forbidden loves. These occasional comic numbers were welcome in an evening dominated by ballads. Love even took her encore, the normally up-tempo “Cockeyed Optimist” from South Pacific, at a slower tempo, and she mostly made it work. She obviously feels most comfortable in this range.

Musical director Neal Richardson provided solid support at the piano with his fine arrangements. New York cabaret artist Lina Koutrakos, in town recently, directed the show, and JT Taylor handled the sound and the tastefully modulated lights.

Bob Wilcox
Cabaret Scenes
May 5, 2009
www.cabaretscenes.org