Shall I call Oleg Frish an international cabaret performer?  He’s international for sure – an émigré Russian in New York broadcasting a Russian-American TV show (talking, singing, interviewing) for the past twenty years on a Russian TV channel from the U.S.  The show, Time Out, is seen in nineteen countries, including the U.S.

But celeb as he may be in certain circles, I arrived knowing only that it was a celebration of a debut CD, Bring Me Sunshine, by a performer with little if any history on the cabaret stage.  What greeted me and his audience when the lights went down was an ebullient personality, crackling with good-spirited energy, enamored of the classic songs of America’s great pop songwriters and giving them handsome renditions backed by a quartet that persuasively recalled the big band sounds of the 1940s.

Frish peppered his time on stage with amusing patter – in his citizenship exam, for example, he claims to have answered a question on the country’s geography by singing “Rhode Island Is Famous for You,” enumerating the 30 or so states in the lyrics.  Most selections were upbeat, up-tempo numbers, including the “Rhode Island” number, “Goody Goody,” and a cha-cha “Dansero.”  But he and the quartet slowed down for some appealing interpretations of “I’ve Heard That Song Before” and his closing, “I Wish You Love.”

Many of Frish’s audience clearly knew him from his TV and radio shows and seemed equally enchanted with the Great American Songbook.  Even his one song in Russian, “Moscow Nights,” included a second go-round with English lyrics.

An ingratiating, energetic entertainer with a pleasing tenor, Frish paired well with the Isaac Ben Ayela Quartet—with Ayela on piano, Mark Phaneuf on sax, drummer Dwaine Broadnax, and David Ephross on bass—to create a much-appreciated, good-time hour-plus at the Metropolitan Room.  Jean-Pierre Perreaux was the capable hand on lights and sound.

Peter Leavy
Cabaret Scenes
November 8, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org