With the long-running Calendar Girl series at The Duplex, you get two performers in one: a fast, funny comedienne and a talented soprano. They are both Colleen McHugh, who, once a month, presents a completely different show, based on that month’s holiday or a specific theme. In February, it was St. Valentine’s Day, a good excuse for an imaginative, riotous evening, full of good music and good spirit. In a bow to the occasion, the tables offered little mounds of free Hershey’s Kisses and chocolate-covered hearts.

The songs for February were refreshing choices. Some were standards: a touch of Rodgers & Hart, Johnny Mercer and Cole Porter, including the latter’s “Miss Otis Regrets (She’s Unable to Lunch Today).” For the most part, however, the numbers were less familiar: two by Heisler and Goldrich—“The Last Song,” with Colleen mastering all its fast-paced mood changes, and “Out of Love”; John Meyer’s “I’d Like to Hate Myself in the Morning”; John Wallowitch’s “If You Don’t Love Me”; “Mexican Wrestler” by Jill Sobule and Robin Eaton, which Colleen delivered in broad Spanish dialect; and, turning a Piaf classic upside-down, “I Regret Everything,” by Bill Burnett and Peggy Black-Sarlin.

One song was brand new. Thanks to Colleen’s experience as a member of the Second City improv troupe, she created it on the spot from ideas drawn from the audience—an almost monthly feature of her show.  

Backing Colleen at the piano, with crystal-clear arrangements, was Chuck Larkin. Lights and sound were in the always-skillful hands of Lisa Moss.

Peter Haas
Cabaret Scenes
February 77, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org