Cabaret-goers enjoyed a breath of fresh air – literally – as a dozen of the city’s popular club singers and instrumentalists gathered outdoors on a cool May night to present a free concert in Tudor City to benefit the community’s mini-parks. Fans and residents filled the benches and walkways to enjoy a generous two-hour show, produced by Raissa Katona Bennett. The program, neatly planned and paced yet with a comfortable easy-going mood to it, presented a solidly professional roster of talent, including Raissa herself, who MC’d; the exuberant Hector Coris; Broadway star Norm Lewis (taking time between his matinee and evening performances in The Little Mermaid); and vocalists Barbara Mundy, Karen Oberlin, Susan Winter, Gretchen Reinhagen, Miles Phillips, plus actor/guitarist Ed Romanov in a folk-sing-along. Music backup was provided by David Caldwell, Mark Janas and Bill Zeffiro on electric keyboard, and, on electric bass guitar, Ritt Henn, who also soloed with his self-penned humorous numbers.

Performing outdoors can be tricky, particularly with a slim p.a. system plugged in for the evening. Subtle vocal effects that make a ballad moving in a club get lost beyond the front rows; ditto fast-paced “throw-away” quips that become .. well, thrown away.  That’s why performers like exuberant Hector Coris; stage-savvy Norm Lewis (singing the rouser, “Before the Parade Passes By”), and Susan Winter, with her clarion-clear "Ring Them Bells," got solid attention. The evening, presented in association with MAC, also received assists from the Laurie Beechman Theatre and Feinstein’s, making it a community event in more than one sense of the word.

Next session:  Wednesday, June 10 (rain date June 11).

Peter Haas
Cabaret Scenes
May 13, 2009
www.cabaretscenes.org