Camille Saviola is a stunning force of nature. She’s a powerful singer, a consummate actress and a mesmerizing stage presence — and boy! what she can do with a lyric! Taking on Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “Soliloquy” from Carousel, Saviola made it completely her own with a distinctive performance that had many hanging onto every word, wondering what she would say next. Because as familiar as the song might have been to many in the audience, Saviola made it sound like something we hadn’t ever heard before — as if the words were occurring to her for the first time —spitting out lyrics now in anger, then defiance, awe, sweetness, surprise, despair, desperation and ultimately acceptance.  She pounded her chest with pride at “her boy Bill,” seemed genuinely confused by the prospect that “he” might be a “she,” and brought tears to her listeners as she described the plans for “her little girl.” It was a stunning theatrical tour-de-force among a series of such moments in the course of a swift-moving 90-minute show.

Saviola portrayed various characters during her show, using monologues to set up songs.  Early on, for example, she became an Italian woman handing out packets of pasta and telling her audience how she wanted to come to America to sing with James Brown — ultimately “meeting” her hero on the streets of New York and singing a gospel-tinged full-out version of  “River Deep, Mountain High” (Ashford and Simpson) that showed off her ample pipes.

Another set piece had the young Camille praying at church, then becoming the Virgin Mary at a bar — while Musical Director Gerald Sternbach played a few notes of George M. Cohan’s “Mary’s a Grand Old Name” in the background. Throughout the piece, Saviola maintained a beatific expression on her face while bemoaning the responsibilities she must face daily (“I signed on for it — to help people and to be on a first-name basis with everyone in the world”).

That monologue led into “It Ain’t Necessarily So,” with special lyrics written by Saviola (“All of the beggars/Heard I was preggers/Without the help of a man”), followed by a few bars of “One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)” (Harold Arlen/Johnny Mercer) — an utterly mesmerizing performance that demonstrated her acting chops and had the audience in dead silence when she was finished before it erupted into applause.

The show also encompassed a monologue about Judy Garland that ended with a ballad-ized version of “There’s No Business Like Show Business” (Irving Berlin); a hilarious song in a Gilbert-and-Sullivan-like tempo telling the story of The Rose Tattoo from Barry Keating’s Hollywood Opera; a clarion call for peace, encompassing Gershwin’s Prelude No. 2, the gospel standard “Wade in the Water” and Bob Dylan’s “Gotta Serve Somebody” — featuring a strong saxophone solo by Damon Zick; and, for an encore, “My Book” from Broadway’s Tango Apassionado (William Finn/Astor Piazzolla).

Besides Sternbach and Zick, the show featured Jonny Morrow on bass and Kiel Feher on drums.

Elliot Zwiebach
Cabaret Scenes
October 8, 2010
www.cabaretscenes.org