There are symphony orchestra conductors who feel obliged to feature unheralded numbers by unrecognized composers to a sometimes curious, but mostly unsympathetic audience.  Not so Ricky Ritzel in his Don’t Tell Mama extravaganza, Ingénue, where in sixty minutes he did complete and excerpted bits of almost as many songs, most of them quite familiar and almost all of them normally restricted to presentation by female performers.

Coming on stage to a deafening ovation by the wall-to-wall crowd in the room, he opened his show by staring into the audience, announcing – deadpan – “I’m a girl,” and launching into a swinging, piano-thumping rendition of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “I Enjoy Being a Girl.”  Of course, he did later admit, to his audience’s great amusement, that the title of his show was a misnomer, because “even if I’d been born a biological woman, I’d never be an ingénue.”

Putting aside what I once described as his cement-mixer singing voice for a more-than-tolerable tenor, Ritzel displayed an uncanny ability to instantaneously shift musical gears up and down, from the rapid-fire and comically murderous Styne/Comden/Green “If You Hadn’t But You Did” for example, to a succeeding and feeling “The Man I Love” by the brothers Gershwin. One appreciable quality Ritzel has in spades is his understanding of and ability to communicate the emotional mood of each of the pieces he plays and sings.  Francesca Blumenthal, who wrote “The Lies of Handsome Men,” would have confirmed she’d seldom heard a singer give her song the emotional empathy of Ritzel’s quiet interpretation.

A highlight to be savored was preceded with the declaration that “My director, Jim Luzar, and I decided there were some songs I couldn’t do tonight.”  (Beat)  “Here they are…” and he launched into well over a score of familiar tunes that had his listeners punctuating his over-the-top medley with laughs and a few voluntary sing-alongs.

There are precious few like Ricky Ritzel, able to hold an audience in continual merriment as he wanders among a song list as varied as his talents as pianist, arranger, interpreter and sit-down comic (although he did, occasionally, stand up as he delivered his jokes).

Ingénue will be presented again on Tuesday, August 23rd.  But don’t be surprised if Don’t Tell Mama insists on extending the run and/or bringing it back soon.

Peter Leavy
Cabaret Scenes
August 18, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org