“This is nice, isn’t it?/I mean the music/This is nice, isn’t it?/I mean the band” sang Christine Pedi, with “Isn’t It?” from Stephen Sondheim’s Saturday Night. One Sunday night, those ringing words rang true: it was nice to see Christine Pedi just sing nice music—as herself—with a few musicians. Although justly celebrated for celebrity impressions and character work in topical revues (long-running Forbidden Broadway, still-running NEWSical), and decks the halls with ha-ha jolly in annual Christmas shows, she is ready to be just Pedi. Increasingly, she’s able to “just sing” and hold the stage. The musical comedy idiom was at Iridium, for sure, but there was more. She dug back for World War II’s nostalgic nugget, “I Don’t Want Walk Without You.” That was going sentimental. Later she went Yentl—with that film's “Will Someone Ever Look at Me That Way?” Things went instrumental with Gene Bertoncini, the gentle jazz giant on guitar for a pin-drop hushed solo, “Edelweiss,” and the sound of music going from classical to jazz when pianist Joel Martin transformed Chopin’s Nocturne in G Minor, no minor feat. An old pal, talented Martin joined her for the first time (great chemistry!); the very fine Elias Bailey was on bass.

Pedi’s casually confident on stage. If her voice isn’t as distinctive or silvery as Christines like Ebersole, Andreas, or those who’d play Christine in Phantom of the Opera, she’s musically versatile, an entertaining pro.

Rob Lester
Cabaret Scenes
November 6, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org