Singing torch songs synchs right into the sophisticated image of visiting a boîte to listen to — and watch — cabaret superstar Andrea Marcovicci.  What’s better than sipping “Blue Champagne” at the The Algonquin Hotel’s Oak Room as she presents her intelligent, entertaining, and poignant show, Blue Champagne: The History of the Torch Song. It’s an event and, during the holiday season, a perfect evening on the town.

You won’t hear “Blue Christmas” or “Jingle Bell Rock” in this show.  Actress and singer, Marcovicci presents the classic songs of love gone bad made into standards by women, some with a murky history, like Helen Morgan and Libby Holman.  Morgan, for example, died an unhappy death at thirty-six of alcoholism, and Holman was accused of murdering her husband.  They had a right to sing the blues.

The audience, however, won’t sing the blues or cry in their cocktails because, while Marcovicci was heartbreaking in her outstanding pairing of “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” (Otto Harbach/Jerome Kern) with “Say It Isn’t So” (Irving Berlin), the optimistic spirit of “Just Like a Man” (Vernon Duke/Ogden Nash) halted any potential crying jags.  She sets the tone with a triptych of classics of yearning women: “Someone to Watch Over Me” and “The Man I Love” (George/Ira Gershwin) lightened by the rueful irony of Alan Jay Lerner/Kurt Weill’s torch song spoof, “Mr. Right.”  “Why Was I Born?” (Oscar Hammerstein II/Jerome Kern) was followed by an amusing Kern melody with lyrics by Irene Franklin, “My Husband’s First Wife.”  Her encore was the bouncy “Button Up Your Overcoat” (Henderson, Da Silva and Brown), sung with a Bronx accent.

Organizing her shows meticulously, Marcovicci keeps a flow of heartache and humor.  A risky move is her swingy take on “Bill,” from Show Boat by Hammerstein, P.G. Wodehouse and Kern that Marcovicci sang with an insouciant “How wacky am I to fall for this guy?” attitude.  Her voice is not secure, but her audience connection was right on target.  They loved her take on the song and they loved her look at the great torch song tradition.

Elizabeth Ahlfors
Cabaret Scenes
November 16, 2010
www.cabaretscenes.org