It was a cold February night, but the sweetness of spring was in the air inside the Algonquin Hotel’s Oak Room. The cause: the return of Maude Maggart. Radiating quiet beauty, dressed in a red, backless gown, her hair upswept, it was a relaxed, more sophisticated Maude than in seasons past – yet with her same supple soprano.

Maude’s program was titled Everybody’s Doin’ It.  Doin’ what? Falling in love, falling out of love, looking for love, but, even more, living life and celebrating it. Standing quietly center stage in a subdued spotlight, singing in a sometimes saucy, sometimes wistful style, she wrapped her voice effortlessly around such romance-inspired classics as “I Wished on the Moon” (by Ralph Rainger and The Algonquin’s own Dorothy Parker), “Why Did I Choose You?” (Martin and Leonard), “They All Laughed” (the Gershwins), and “Down in the Depths(On the Ninetieth Floor)” (Cole Porter). Her program, however, also looked at more philosophical matters with songs such as Sondheim’s “Everybody Says Don’t” and his plaintive “Anyone Can Whistle,” Rodgers and Hart’s song of the free spirit, “The Lady Is a Tramp,” Burke and Van Heusen’s “Swinging on a Star” and Irving Berlin’s deceptively simple and moving “Pennies from Heaven.” Through them all, Maude’s own sense of comfort, the clarity of her arrangements – by her superb Musical Director, John Boswell – and the simplicity of her delivery kept the songs appropriately center stage, captivatingly and movingly.

Maude is at The Oak Room through March 12. By then, spring may catch up with her.

Peter Haas
Cabaret Scenes
February 15, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org