Jamie deRoy has produced many shows during her career, both in cabaret and on Broadway and TV.  Along the way she's accumulated multiple MAC and Back Stage Bistro Awards, recorded several CDs with tracks by various performers, acted in theater, movies and on television and appeared in many music programs of her own.  Chief among these is Jamie deRoy & friends, a popular series which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary.  As host and performer, deRoy has a bright presence and comedic bent which set the tone for a lively gathering of singers, songwriters, musicians and a comic.

Among the excellent performers was Mary Liz McNamara, a songwriter who sang her own songs: “Christmas in Michigan,” about a woman who's tired of playing nice to family members and “Bacon,” a tale of a resolute vegetarian who's unable to rid her head of porcine images.  McNamara's deadpan delivery and sudden outbursts of candor made for hilarious satire.

A classic ballad first performed by Frank Sinatra early on his path to stardom, “Everything Happens to Me” (Adair & Dennis) with au courant lyrics—“I've e-mailed and I've texted, sent a Facebook message, too...”—was sung by Andrew Halliday, a British performer.  Halliday yielded patiently to bogus interruptions by an audience member pretending to be a rowdy in search of his drink order and a boor whose cell phone rang loudly in the middle of a perfect phrase.  Helen Anker, a veteran of the West End and Broadway, joined Halliday for a sweet duet of “It's a Lovely Day Today,” written by Irving Berlin for Call Me Madam.  Anker also performed “Show Off” from The Drowsy Chaperone (Lambert & Morrison) as a character who can't resist doing just that. Given both her legitimate and musical experience, one wanted to hear Anker's fine voice address a romantic ballad.

MAC and Bistro Award winner Sean Harkness, an extraordinary guitarist who enhances the performance of everyone he supports, sang and played an inspired arrangement of “Out of Nowhere” (Heyman & Green), his pleasing baritone voice in perfect harmony with the gorgeous melody.  Harkness followed brilliantly with “Nod to John,” a personal tribute to jazz legend John Scofield.  Kevin Meaney, reminiscent of the classic comedians Paul Lynde and Dick Shawn, is a very funny man.  An Emmy Award recipient who's appeared in the musical Hairspray, Meaney brought the audience to tears with a loony rendition of “Winter Wonderland” as if sung by Ethel Merman and Johnny Mathis—Merman leaving only the falsetto notes for Mathis.  But Meaney topped himself with “We Are the World,” where he lip-synced the voices and mimicking the gestures of every famous pop singer on the original recording from Ray Charles and Bob Dylan to Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Wonder.

Jamie deRoy contributed three songs, including an amusing “Duane Reade,” sung to the tune of “Downtown” and David Buskin's “Jews Don't Camp,” which she performed with all the aplomb of a Borscht Belt top banana: “Until they have seltzer in the brook, get me a nice egg cream.” With help from exceptional talents like director Barry Kleinbort and Musical Director Christopher Denny, Jamie deRoy & friends may run for another 20 years.

Jerry Osterberg
Cabaret Scenes
July 27, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org