In a conversation with me several years ago, Amanda McBroom complained that the powers-that-be in Hollywood don’t offer roles to singers because they believe that singers can’t act. I was reminded of that as I watched her perform at the Metropolitan Room.  Those “suits” should come to see her perform and have the opportunity to correct that opinion. Her forceful, emotional readings give McBroom a depth that few other cabaret performers achieve.  And her ability to establish a strong relationship with her audience magnifies that touching effect on all in the room.

Accompanied at the piano by her long-time friend and songwriting collaborator, Michele Brourman, with but few exceptions, McBroom’s choice of songs were about love – mature love, appreciative love – and far more upbeat than the show title would suggest.

With the Michele Brourman opener, “Let’s Order In,” McBroom wickedly set the mood to one of playful love. Followed by an equally playful “Nice Girls (Don’t Stay for Breakfast)” that concludes with the not-too-subtle request to “pass the jam.”  The mood turned more serious with an intriguingly distinctive arrangement by Brourman of Cole Porter’s “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” providing McBroom with the opportunity to remind the audience that her lower registers can send shivers up the spine.

The few exceptions to love songs?  Dave Frischberg’s “Blizzard of Lies.”  You’ll recognize them:
We'll send someone right out.
Now this won't hurt a bit.
He's in a meeting now.
The coat's a perfect fit.

“Monica.”  A McBroom/Joel Silberman political commentary neatly shrouded in humor:
I miss Monica / I miss Bill.
I miss honesty / I miss truth.

And the encore, “It’s Gonna Be One of Those Days,” when – amusing to everyone but the vocalist – everything goes wrong.

But with most, McBroom unerringly touches the heartstrings. “Portrait” manifests the desperate fear of losing her mother… “Mama, don’t leave me…  Mama, don’t go…” And if that alone didn’t win her an audience Grammy, with an ever-more powerful presentation of her own best-known songwriting effort, “The Rose,” McBroom demonstrated that even Bette Midler, who cut it as possibly the biggest hit single in 1980, might have to take her hat off to McBroom’s 2010 rendition. Hollywood know-it-alls, take notice.

J-P Perreaux was the competent hand at lights and sound.

Peter Leavy
Cabaret Scenes
October 20, 2010
www.cabaretscenes.org

A further view from Barbara Leavy:

Because Amanda is not only a great entertainer but also a songwriter and what has been called an urban poet, she is very sensitive to language and the more subtle themes in songs. Those who have followed her over the years will recognize some of those she favors during Noir: the outgrowing of dreams; the dissatisfied housewife in “Lady Has the Blues” (thematic echoes of  her “Putting Things Away” and “Dreaming”). Therefore it is not happenstance that she paired two songs without intervening patter. The first is a number from her new musical, written with Michele Brourman, scheduled to open in January at the Pasadena Playhouse. Set in 16th century Venice, it depicts a family whose economic survival depends on a young woman’s agreeing to become a courtesan. In this highly melodic song, with explicit sexual images that both shocked and amused the audience, Amanda takes the role of the mother who is instructing her daughter on how to please a man. She immediately followed this with one of her earliest songs, “Portrait,” in which a young woman, agonized over the impending loss of her mother ,asks the portrait if she, the mother, had been distressed by the girl’s “too many men.” The counterpoint in this near-medley was extremely powerful.

If you haven’t already seen this show, hurry to the Metropolitan Room. Amanda McBroom and Michelle Brourman are there through Saturday, October 23. You’ll be sorry if you don’t.

Barbara Leavy
Cabaret Scenes
October 20, 2010
www.cabaretscenes.org