The electricity in the Metropolitan Room seemed almost palpable as those in the packed house waited for Gregory Generet to begin the show.  One thing was certain: this performer enjoys a dedicated following.  It didn’t take long to discover why.  On stage, he’s relaxed, friendly, conversing with his audience, and having one hell of a good time up there.  And so were his gifted musicians, most notably Steve Bargonetti, a prodigious guitarist who seemed choreographed with his vocalist as they swayed together in unison as he coaxed music from his instrument which extracted cheers of appreciation from the audience.

Generet is a study in perpetual motion.  Good looking and nattily dressed right down to the cufflinks, he didn’t just stand there and smile, he gestured, he rocked, he danced, he was never still, either while singing or listening to the frequent featured breaks of his instrumentalists—Bargonetti, Mimi Jones on bass, Payton Crossley on drums, and his Musical Director, Brandon McCuen, on piano.

Like his opening number, Richard Torrance and John Heny’s “Rio de Janeiro Blue,” most selections were either written by jazz artists or got the jazz treatment, such as Generet’s very interesting take on “Nature Boy,” an intriguing and markedly different one from Nat King Cole’s hit version.  To fully appreciate Generet’s mellifluous and compelling baritone, however, one had to wait for a few of the slower numbers, when the band tempered its enthusiasm, lowered its volume, and took on an appropriate supporting role that allowed Generet to monopolize the audience’s attention with his vocals. Jeffery Smith's “When the Night Turns Into Day” was one such mesmerizing moment, sharing honors with Generet’s effective rendition of the Alan and Marilyn Bergman and Michel Legrand “Once You’ve Been in Love.”

One simple change could have made this otherwise pleasing show an even greater winner: taking the band down a handful of decibels on several of the numbers. Like most other cabaret venues, the Metropolitan Room is a comfortably intimate space, but the instrumentalists too often seemed as if they were playing for a much larger concert hall, overwhelming Generet with the resultant volume and making his singing and the lyrics virtually unintelligible. When that happened, we felt cheated.  Come on, guys, it’s an easy fix.  Remember whose show it is.

Peter Leavy
Cabaret Scenes
August 10, 2010
www.cabaretscenes.org