Hats off to Jennifer Gregson on an honest debut show!  Making a first-time entrance on the cabaret stage isn’t an easy task.  And that’s a real fact of life.  Admittedly, she thought Cabaret was just a Kander & Ebb musical!

With the support of her terrific team—Steven Ray Watkins, Musical Director and Lennie Watts, Director—she put together a pleasing array of more contemporary songs to relate her facts. Nerves aside, she opened with “I Know a Place” (Tony Hatch) and “IThe n’ Crowd” (Billy Page) which required a bit more enthusiasm. However, as she began to relax, her sweetness and humor emerged on “Brian Played Guitar” (Chuck Coleman) segueing into “Dogs in the Yard” (King/Musker), a lesson in frustrations no matter where one lives, and that it is music that makes the world spin.

Gregson seemed most inspired and impassioned on “Who I Am” (Verges/James) and had some funny, easy patter throughout and about her three-year marriage, moving into the rock ballad “Girls Lie ,Too” (Nichols, Harrington/Lovelace). There was a clever arrangement of TV theme songs and, by the close of her show, she was loose and loving every minute.

Ms. Gregson needs to concentrate on developing her voice, finding palettes of color and perhaps some vibrato to warm the edges.

Sandi Durell
Cabaret Scenes
September 13, 2009
www.cabaretscenes.org