Roslyn Kind packs an emotional wallop into every song she sings.  From start to finish, her commitment to the music is powerful and effective, and she constantly tops herself as her show progresses.

Her voice was lush and evocative in its lower range, and she was incredibly consistent in building to ever-higher peaks as she moved into her higher range. The only distraction was what sounded like a high reverb on her microphone — an unnecessary addition for someone with a voice as glorious as Kind’s.

The newest addition to her show, which she said she had received only the day before the performance, was a medley consisting of “Going Out of My Head” (Teddy Randazzo/Bobby Weinstein) and “Losing My Mind” (Stephen Sondheim, from Follies) — an apt combination in which she interwove the two songs to deliver an amazing audience experience. She took an interesting approach to “Getting to Know You” (Rodgers & Hammerstein, from The King and I) — singing it as a ballad, which made its simple lyrics sound almost sensuous, while choosing to alternate lines of melody and harmony, which created a somewhat odd new whole.  Adding to the song’s novel feel was a trace of melody from “I Could Have Danced All Night” (Lerner & Loewe, from My Fair Lady) provided by pianist David Snyder.

Other highlights included: her incredibly glorious versions of “How Do You Keep the Music Playing?” (Alan and Marilyn Bergman/Michel Legrand) and “Meadowlark” (Stephen Schwartz, from The Baker’s Wife); along with “Can You Read My Mind?” (John Williams/Leslie Bricusse, from the movie Superman); and a haunting ballad called “Someday” (Richard Carpenter/John Bettis) (“All I can give you is someday … Please say that you’ll be waiting when someday comes.”)

Kind was relaxed on stage and seemed to be having a lot of fun — strutting back and forth while Snyder played the familiar vamp from “All That Jazz” (Kander & Ebb) while she kidded with the audience before finally launching into the song—then singing an apparently impromptu version of “Never Never Land” (Comden & Green/Jule Styne) when an audience member requested it — a lovely moment that ended with Snyder providing a bit of vocal harmony.

The show was produced by Jackie Stander.

Elliot Zwiebach
Cabaret Scenes
October 21, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org