Sheryl Lee Ralph is a brilliant dramatic actress, and she brings that brilliance to her singing.  Though she made her mark as Deena, part of the singing trio in Dreamgirls, her voice is more pleasant than remarkable— but what she lacks in vocal chops, she more than makes up for in the way she uses her acting chops to shape a song and deliver the lyrics with powerful emotion.  She made that talent abundantly clear in the songs she sang— virtually all ballads — particularly “The Look of Love” (Burt Bacharach/ Hal David) and Dreamgirls’ “We Are a Family”(Henry Krieger/ Tom Eyen).  She also did a good job on “Welcome to the Theater” (Charles Strouse/ Lee Adams), the clarion call from Applause, a show in which she starred in Los Angeles a couple of years ago.

Ironically, in a one-hour show that included only eight complete songs, one of the evening’s highlights was the terrific piece of special material called “Don’t Talk, Just Sing” — advice Ralph should have heeded.  She spent a good deal of her time on stage talking about scandal magazines and the public travails of John Edwards, Tiger Woods and, reaching waaaay back, Liza Minnelli and David Gest, and also trading barbs with Jenifer Lewis, who was in the audience.  While it was appropriate for her to talk about the career path that led her to Dreamgirls, she spent too much time talking about other things along the way — what her set list called “diva talk.”

One might also take exception to “God Bless the Child” (Billie Holiday/ Arthur Herzog, Jr.), which she sang very well — until she started listing the material things she has in her life, which seemed inappropriate for the message the song delivers.  Nevertheless, she seemed completely sincere in her plea for people to be more civil, to greet each other with a smile and to join in the fight against AIDS/HIV.

Providing more than able support to Ralph on piano was Gerald Sternbach, who came in as her Musical Director only one week before the show.

Elliot Zwiebach
Cabaret Scenes
February 14, 2010
www.cabaretscenes.org