Peter Mac is a strong, brilliant performer even without the Judy Garland glitter that characterizes most of his cabaret shows. Standing center stage as himself, Mac is a proud gay man who makes no bones about his feelings about young gay men who are bullied and beaten and driven to suicide — it breaks his heart, he told a cabaret audience.  “Thank God I saw light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.

Performing in an open, unvarnished autobiographical show, Mac bared his soul to describe how he overcame a youth spent dealing with homophobic bullies and gay-bashing — initially finding refuge in the love of his mother, his aunt and his grandparents and later through the love of performing.

He was brutal in his honesty about his life, using a broad variety of songs — none more fully realized than his powerful performance of the Charles Aznavour song that gave the show its name.  In Mac’s hands, “What Makes a Man a Man?” was a quiet, reflective tour-de-force about a man who cooks and sews and strips in drag shows to make a living but is no less a man for it. He was also effective and moving later in Jerry Herman’s “I Am What I Am,” which covers some of the same territory.

Describing his efforts to get out of the homophobic confines of Long Island, NY, Mac was dynamic in combining “There’s Gotta Be Something Better Than This” (Cy Coleman/Dorothy Fields from Sweet Charity) with Stephen Sondheim’s “Move On” (Sunday in the Park with George).

With love and humor, he also described how he met John Schaefer, his partner for the last eight years, illustrated by a contemplative medley featuring the Bobby Darin-recorded “The Other Half of Me” and Carole King/Carole Bayer Sager’s “Anyone at All.”

The show was not all heavy ballads, however, as Mac let the audience know early on the focus of the evening would be himself in an over-the-top ego trip called “Me” (Wayne Moore). He discussed the frustrations of auditioning with “16 Bars” (also Wayne Moore) and talked about his role in a non-musical Off-Broadway show called Making Porn, using David Pevsner’s “Perky Little Porn Star” from Naked Boys Singing to describe the experience. He also used Peter Allen/Carole Bayer Sager’s “Quiet Please, There’s a Lady on Stage” to talk about his self-penned show, Judy & Me, which ran on and off-Broadway in different incarnations over several years.

Mac got effective piano accompaniment from John Randall, who was his vocal coach and sometime pianist when both were living in New York.

In a show that ran two hours, the Aznavour song would have made a strong finish for a much shorter, more focused show.  However, Mac spent a second hour charming his audience with several impersonations, highlighted by a pinpoint impression of Gwen Verdon and a lengthier segment on Judy Garland.

The standing ovation Mac got from the audience — a rarity at the Gardenia — indicated his audience appreciated all the time he gave it.

Elliot Zwiebach
Cabaret Scenes
November 26, 2010
www.cabaretscenes.org