The love-fest between Brad Ellis and wife Eydie Alyson was a given going in, and while many in the audience came to see the couple as the evening’s main course, it was their two featured guests — Judy Butterfield and Mindi Hadan — that provided unexpectedly rich desserts.

Butterfield is a twenty-year-old with the mature voice of a young Judy Garland and the innocence of a girl on the brink of womanhood who has yet to fully realize the full range of power she has on stage; while Hadan is a young woman in full control of a powerful vocal instrument who knows her strengths and demonstrates them full blast.

Grounding the evening were the couple that bills itself as “Ellis and Alyson,” performing a stunning array of standards from the Great American Songbook with an easy rapport that puts an audience at ease. Ellis — cherub-faced and tossing quips verbal and instrumental — is an accomplished pianist and arranger currently seen on TV’s Glee, while Alyson — a compact bundle of energy and talent — is a singer-actress who can break your heart or your funny-bone with the turn of a lyric.

What Ellis’s voice lacks in power or range it more than makes up for in his expressive piano-playing and the sincerity of his on-stage persona, whether singing-speaking the lyrics to “No One But Me” (Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein) from Show Boat or “Lady Be Good” (George and Ira Gershwin), both in tribute to his wife.

Alyson was especially effective in recreating the emotional finale of Seesaw — with “I’m Way Ahead” (Cy Coleman/Dorothy Fields) — in a small tour-de-force while also showing a softer side cooing love songs to Ellis, including a couple of Rodgers and Hart valentines — “My Funny Valentine” and “This Can’t Be Love.”

The couple were also moving in their duets, including Ellis’s “Love Nest” (with lyrics by Peter Morris) and “To Know You Is to Love You” (Robert Allen/Allan Roberts).

In her set, Butterfield showed off a voice that’s magnificent and pure, along with superb phrasing and an utterly charming manner.  From the first notes of “All the Things You Are” (Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein), you know you’re in the presence of someone special — a suspicion that was simply confirmed as she moved into “How Long Has This Been Going On?” (George and Ira Gershwin).

Butterfield has the ability to give old songs fresh-sounding interpretations — possibly because of the still-girlish timbre in her voice —notably in her take on “That Old Black Magic” (Harold Arlen/Johnny Mercer); and an irresistibly beautiful “A Sleepin’ Bee” (Arlen/Truman Capote). She also showed off her acting chops on Christine Lavin’s clever “Good Thing He Can’ Read My Mind” and her fun side in an Ellis-arranged duet of “I Got Rhythm” (the Gershwins), which she sang with the pianist. With a bit more life experience to back up the emotions in her lyrics, Butterfield has the potential to inherit the throne of today’s top cabaret singers.

While Butterfield is still maturing, Hadan is a bonafide bombshell out of San Francisco with a versatile style and a definite “wow” factor in her performance. She sings blues — “Love Me or Leave Me” (Walter Donaldson/Gus Kahn) — like Peggy Lee; country-and-western — a medley of “Lovesick Blues” (Cliff Friend/Irving Mills), yodeling included, and a twangy “Blue Moon of Kentucky” (Bill Monroe) —  like Patsy Cline; and jazz — an uptempo “I Wish You Love” (Leo Chauliac/Albert A. Beach) —and does all of them equally well, though her jazz phrasing sacrificed some of the emotion of the lyrics in favor of singing the notes.

The performers were backed by Nate Light on bass and Tom Bowe on drums, under the musical direction of Clifford Bell.

Elliot Zwiebach
Cabaret Scenes
June 5, 2010
www.cabaretscenes.org