Don’t you love that first click in a cabaret show when the performer engages the audience and it all comes alive? In his cabaret debut show, Just ‘Cause, Kevin Wood, who billed himself as “Kevin Wood, Tenor,” had to shift his focus from his operatically-trained voice and embrace the story that a song tells. The magic click happened when he sang “Fallin’” from They’re Playing Our Song. Suddenly, Wood started to have a sparkle in his eye and look at folks and smile from a true place. It is no coincidence that when he became committed to interpreting the lyric that the shaky pitches that early debut-night jitters engendered got cleaner and the vibrato got tighter. Openly gay, Wood had a grand time with “A Patriotic Finale” from When Pigs Fly, savoring both the clever word play (“You can’t have New York without Queens”) and the message about tolerance and respect. When he delivered “I Was Here” from The Glorious Ones (lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, music by Stephen Flaherty) he made us understand why he and anyone inclined to the fine arts indeed pursues that art: It is to be more present in life and beyond. Wood plumbs both the anthemic nature of this song and the emotions that are personal to him as a promising cabaret performer. In cabaret, it may be wiser for Kevin to bill himself as “Kevin Wood, Story-teller.” After that magical click, he earned the right.

Carla Gordon
Cabaret Scenes
September 16, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org