I was impressed with The Manhattan Dolls a few months back when they shared the Metropolitan Room stage with the British group, Jive Aces.  Now that they brought their own show to the venue, I made sure not to miss it.

Opening with an instrumental “Take the A Train,” Sentimental Journey was a carefully constructed act.  The three attractive women – Sarah Drake, Sheila Coyle and Mallorie Fletcher (“dolls” they are) – attired in identical outfits down to the white satin gloves, performed with a precision more usually associated with the Rockettes.  Choreographed, in fact, might describe it quite properly.  Every gesture, every movement, was clearly orchestrated and carefully timed.  But far from being a distraction, it worked well for the threesome as they “celebrated the music of the ’thirties and ’forties.”  It worked well enough, in fact, for one to hope that, if they recorded the show, it would be on a DVD to allow that audience to appreciate the synchronized body movements as well as the vocals.

For anyone with a memory of the music of World War II, the Manhattan Dolls show was more than a sentimental journey, it was a rocket ship to nostalgia, as the song list brought back to life probably the most successful singing group of mid-twentieth century America, the three Andrews Sisters and many of their hit recordings.  Who wouldn’t enjoy the life-affirming cheerfulness of their “Bei Mir Bist du Schoen,” “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,” “Chattanooga Choo Choo,” “(I’ll Ne with You in) Apple Blossom Time,” and other such musical memorabilia, plus an encore of Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America?”  The Manhattan Dolls not only delivered the songs with verve, they communicated that upbeat mood to their audience.  Their musicians – Jordan Piper on piano, Daniel Foose on bass, trumpeter Justin Gardocki and drummer Curt Garey – if a less swashbuckling band than the Jive Aces, supported the trio well.

Not surprisingly, the three Dolls and their show are popular, as Sarah Drake described it, “at air shows and military bases, especially the Air Force.”  But in the intimate surroundings of a cabaret room, they could do more with their patter to alternate with the stream of songs and add a needed dimension to Sentimental Journey: Conveying a sense of a wartime era that cherished this popular music at a time of ten million American men in uniform, civilian food rationing, “Rosie the Riveter” entreating women to take wartime factory jobs, husbands and lovers overseas, and music that could and did nevertheless engage and cheer its listeners.  It co­uld only make this eminently pleasing show something even more substantial and satisfying.

Peter Leavy
Cabaret Scenes
April 14, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org