Storm Large is a potent and charismatic performer who catches your attention and never lets it go.  As far as the show’s title goes, my mother never warned me about women, so, happily, there were no pangs of guilt appreciating this lovely, lively and sometimes licentious female performer in the lipstick-red satin floor-length gown.

Several of her songs, quite well done, were written by Large herself and, although apparently familiar to much of her jam-packed audience, not so to me. Nevertheless, one thing was clear from the very start: this vocalist has a vision all her own and even familiar songs did not echo the tried and true versions you might have heard enough times to whistle in your sleep. Her take, for example, on Cole Porter’s “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” gave us a slow, tortured woman agonizing with both the passion and the frustration of her emotions.  When Large sang, “Don't you know, little fool, you never can win,” it was an excruciating admission to us and to herself that seemed to wrack her very body and soul.  And, on a non-familiar track, in a song where the devastated singer has lost her former lover to another woman, the audience enthusiastically joined in on the refrain: “I want you to die.”

Few cabaret performers are as continually theatrical, both with their emotions and their body language as Storm Large.  Often, eyes closed and arms outstretched in a plea, she seemed lost in the reverie of her song.  Her passion proved magnetic. Understandably, the intensity of her expressions and her physical responses to her songs (“I like songs that are about love, and how it can go terribly, terribly wrong”) often diverted one’s awareness from the excellence of her versatile – from a whisper to a belt – and pleasing voice.

Storm Large is someone to watch.  She is compelling, fascinating and almost uniquely unconventional. Have you ever been to a cabaret performance where someone in the audience is brought on stage to be spanked to celebrate her birthday?  Yes, it happened.  And though some of the banter used raw language more usually heard in comedy rooms, it failed to disturb her listeners and seemed more her everyday vernacular than used for shock value.  Possibly regrettably, these days it’s nothing that would startle any junior high school student anywhere in the country.

Storm Large’s performance was a one-shot at the Metropolitan Room.  Hopefully, they’ll have her back. She’s a winner, and too many folks on the waiting list couldn’t get in.

Peter Leavy
Cabaret Scenes
August 31, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org