Welcome home, Karen Mason! In Karen’s case, and for legions of her fans, home is the cabaret stage. A ten-time MAC Award winner, she took time in recent years to star on Broadway in such shows as Mamma Mia!, Sunset Boulevard and, most recently, the short-lived Wonderland. This summer, she returned to cabaret, for a single evening at Iridium titled, appropriately, Show Queen: Life After Wonderland.

Her voice as powerful and crystal clear and her personality as warm and endearing as ever, Karen opened with show tunes, including “Something’s Coming” and “Just in Time.” Following, in a back-handed salute to the now-closed Wonderland itself (with songs by Wildhorn and Murphy), Karen offered a parody based on the melody of “Show Me” (My Fair Lady) transformed with new lyrics by the evening’s cabaret director Barry Kleinbort, into “Show Queen,” an amusing poke at her experience with Wonderland. A group of standards followed, including a forceful pairing of “Stormy Weather” and “When the Sun Comes Out,” both displaying Karen’s gift of bringing her songs’ characters to life.

Returning to Wonderland, she sang “Finding Wonderland” and her tour de force from that production, “Off with Their Heads.” The show built to a moving almost-finale with the wistful “Somewhere” and, with a clarion call, to Darion/Leigh’s soaring “The Impossible Dream,” mellowing down to a warm encore with “Right Here, Right Now” (by her husband, Paul Rolnick, and Jim Papoulis). Throughout, expert accompaniment was provided by Christopher Denny.

Peter Haas
Cabaret Scenes
July 19, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org