She entered the packed room, smiling radiantly as if she were coming back home. To huge applause, she moved toward the stage, stopped just below it, turned and faced the audience, and from there began to sing. The audience was instantly hers. It was Sheera Ben-David, absent from New York cabaret for over a year, and, in her one-night return to Feinstein’s at Loews Regency, singing more powerfully, more self-assuredly and more warmly than ever.

In most cabaret reviews, the musicians get a perfunctory last word. Sheera’s band was the last word: in energy, imaginative arrangements and integration with the singer. Led at the piano by Adam Ben-David—Sheera’s brother, and associate conductor of Broadway’s The Book of Mormon, which that same evening won nine Tony Awards—the group included Marc Schmied on bass, Damien Bassman on drums and Robert Burkhart on cello.

After five songs at floor level, including Jobim’s “Waters of March,” Sheera took to the stage. Among her numbers: five Jacques Brel creations—a Sheera specialty; Charlie Chaplin’s “This Is My Song”; the Tom Kitt/Brian Yorkey “I Miss the Mountains”; a Hebrew selection, “Al Kol Eileh” (“For All These Things”); a fast-paced Sondheim (“Another Hundred People”); and John Bucchino’s sweet “If I Ever Say I’m Over You.” As Sheera moved from song to song, often with no patter—thanks to Eric Michael Gillett’s smartly-paced direction—her audience sat beaming upward at her. The evening was a love fest—deservedly so. It’s time Sheera Ben-David returned for a solid extended run.

Peter Haas
Cabaret Scenes
June 12, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org