How appropriate for Lillias White to pay homage to her close friend, songwriter Cy Coleman. The music is a part of her and the tribute flows from her immense talent with joy and ease. Her second number, the Coleman/Leigh “The Other Side of the Tracks” from Little Me, is big and brassy with some lovely scat intermingled with a great rhythm provided by bassist Gary Haase and drummer Buddy Williams.  White is a force of nature for sure—dancing elegantly like a tigress, highlighting the emotions of Coleman’s melodies and working the audience like the seasoned Broadway actress she is.

White, winner of every theatre award possible, is literally a showstopper. Announcing she was going to “Lilliasize” her next number, she set the staid Venetian Room on fire with her definitive version of “Witchcraft.” Like a performer possessed, White breathes soul and a wicked sensuousness into her reading of it, making the Sinatra versioin forgettable. The title tune from I Love My Wife, a soul-infused “The Best Is Yet to Come,” a super uptempo version of Wildcat’s “Hey, Look Me Over”—all display White’s range and depth, from sweet confection to lovely ballad. The crazy word rhyming “When in Rome (I Do as the Romans Do)” is a delightful swing with a slight calypso beat.  The Coleman/the Bergmans jazz tune, “Those Hands,” had a ragtime/jellyroll feel. From her Tony Award-winning performance in The Life, she sang “The Oldest Profession” is yet another tour de force, giving the stage over to the character, Sonia, for the comic story of an aging prostitute.

Coleman was adept at many styles, from classical to jazz, with his unique rhythms showcasing the lyrics. White accentuates both the music and the words with her deliveries. Throughout her show I kept flashing back to the night I saw Lena Horne’s The Lady and Her Music and how dazzled I was at the enormity of her talent. Blessed to be “the little black child dancing on my grandmother’s table and now performing on stages around the world,” White relishes her great fortune. Her gift is now ours as well.

Steve Murray
Cabaret Scenes
May 14, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org