Some have a pretty voice. Some: spunk, spice or sparkle. Others can really get inside lyrics and communicate the story. Put Marianne Challis on the short list where we check “all of the above” as very apparent in the skill set. Comfortable in her own skin and stage of life, the self-nicknamed “Middle-Aged Party Girl” is equally unwilling to give up her youthful joie de vivre. Imbuing many numbers with thoughtfulness and the wisdom of experience, she can master and muster up ageless yearning to even ride the warhorse “Over the Rainbow” to convincingly wistful victory. Devoting more time than most to patter, it’s never blather—rather, she ingratiatingly offers wry anecdotes and observations: bemused exasperation over reality TV; discovering newly-coined trendy words (“pre-hab”); how as Miss Illinois runner-up, she entertained at… a cattle-judging contest. A couple of standards were done in ways too, well, “standard,” but she mined new depths with others. Her “Get Here”/“Come Back to Me” medley had near-tear drama of real pleading and needing. So superbly delineated and emotionally rich were “Both Sides Now” and “Something in Red” that they play like stage plays with each chorus a precise and perfect mini-scene.

Trio accompaniment, led by pianist Mark Hummel, was generally on the mark but arrangements occasionally distracted, such as a phrase of one song played way too soon foreshadowing its appearance in what would become a medley.

In a show with honesty abounding, “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” was her only lie – she gives much more.

Rob Lester
Cabaret Scenes
April 18, 2010
www.cabaretscenes.org