Mary Testa is one of Broadway’s funniest big-belters, having recently finished roles in off Broadway’s I’ll Be Damned and been on Broadway in Xanadu and the recent revival of Guys & Dolls. She is not your average transition from Broadway to cabaret. In fact, as Testa puts it “I hate cabaret. All they do is talk about themselves….I, I, I.”

No traditional Great American Songbook tunes for this gal. No, it’s got to be esoteric, new, contemporary, make you think or, as she puts it, “unorthodox.”

Staying within this genre, she accomplished the goal with a sprinkling of a few familiar tunes (“Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries,” “Will You Love Me Tomorrow”) mainly as set up to a wide variety of everything from Sonnet 29, put to music by her long-time friend and Musical Director Michael Starobin (two-time Tony Award winner), and Sonnet 43, musicalized by Sondheim. Self-assured, she presented an Elizabeth Bishop poem set to music by Ben Toth, “I Am in Need of Music.”

From A New Brain, Testa wailed on “Change” and sang a soulful “Beautiful” from Maltby & Shire’s Starting Here, Starting Now, showing how deeply she can reach into the characters. The novelty of “Muffin’s Aria” from the comic opera A Wedding by Robert Altman, was a wee bit over the top (for moi). Leaving no stone unturned, she included “Chekhov” from Birds of Paradise, an obscure musical by David Evans and Winnie Holzman.

Now we know what she means by Classically Speaking. Nothing commercial. Suffice it to say, Testa is one terrific performer but if you’re looking for the Great American Songbook, you won’t find it here.

Sandi Durell
Cabaret Scenes
September 20, 2010
www.cabaretscenes.org