Consummate actress-performer Andrea Marcovicci unveiled her homage to four-time Oscar winner Johnny Mercer at the intimate Oak Room.  Her show was the only Mercer tribute commissioned for the Savannah Music Festival and it is filled with titillating tidbits and anecdotes. “Mercer would write a song with the first person who showed up in the morning,” quipped Marcovicci. Audience member and music historian Robert Kimball, who wrote the book, The Complete Lyrics of Johnny Mercer, concurred that Mercer had 230 collaborators. Some of those included Jimmy Van Heusen, Harold Arlen and Hoagy Carmichael.

Marcovicci is like a sweet, fuzzy caterpillar materializing into a beautiful butterfly opening her colorful wings, flitting here and there, regaling her audience with high emotional intensity of style and splendor.  All the while, she is engaging and breathless in her interpretation so that one has no choice but to follow and surrender.

Musically, she and arranger-pianist Shelly Markham have fashioned a wide ranging collection of Mercer songs, including his very first published song, “Out of Breath (and Scared to Death of You)."  As the story goes, when Mercer hit the Big Apple he was torn between becoming a writer, singer or actor.  However, since available openings seemed to be for songwriters, he wrote the lyric “Out of Breath” for The Garrick Gaieties in 1930, meeting his wife to be, chorus girl Ginger Meehan, who was dating Bing Crosby at the time.

The song cycle “P.S. I Love You"/"I Thought About You"/"That Old Black Magic” was a love story on several levels: from Ginger to Johnny, Johnny to Ginger, with the latter an enlightening portrayal of the long-lasting affair that had just begun between Mercer and Judy Garland when she was 19 and he 33.  Marcovicci is an effusive instrument as she sings the story of “That Old Black Magic.”

From the lyrical and stylized “Autumn Leaves” (French/English) to the novelty wit and humor of “Gettin’ a Man” (different from getting a husband! ), through the Torch Song Section—“One For My Baby (and One More for the Road)"/"I Wanna Be Around” and biting “Goody, Goody”—Marcovicci sells each song with élan and an intricate understanding of every lyric.

Unable to change gowns, as her audiences are accustomed to seeing, she transformed with different jackets, evoking varying thoughts and feelings. Yes, her voice is thin and not the highlight, but Marcovicci remains a grand and celebrated performer.

Andrea Marcovicci can be seen at the Oak Room, with Shelly Markham on piano and Jered Egan on bass, through December 26, 2009.

Sandi Durell
Cabaret Scenes
November 17, 2009
www.cabaretscenes.org