Lennie Watts has not presented a new solo cabaret show in five years, but when he decides, “It’s about time we get started,” it’s a 100-watt performance. With a smoking band and a five-star vocal trio, he belts the bejesus out of his first song, “It’s About Time” by Kenny Loggins, with gospel calls of joy, life, love, trust, hope. Bloody Bloody Lennie Watts is a personal show, showing Watts’s serious side, with troublesome times in recent years, and is coming through with new priorities.  “Life’s a bitch,” he decided, “and then you sing about it.”

Watts is a showman and, with a well-balanced collection of songs and anecdotes at the Metropolitan Room, he adds how unexpected life turns have, yes, bloodied him. The vocal and narrative messages look directly in the face of faith, religion, addictions, family, and relationships. He reveals where he’s been and how he got here and shares the tales with passion, pathos and wit. He even gives his audience a bit of advice on what to do when all you want to do is pull the blankets over your head – “Get out of the apartment.”

This is far from a depressing show. At least not totally. Watts searches for each song’s intent, finding a unique way to put it across either with tempo changes, its position in the show or an intriguing pairing, lifting you out of the depths with laughter and hope. After sinking into the country sound of “Lonely at the Bottom” (Mike and Jan Dowling), what can lift you better than the laughably snarky “Schadenfreude” from Avenue Q by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx (additional lyrics by Watts)?  “Standing Knee Deep in a River (Dying of Thirst)” (Bob McDill, Bucky Jones, Dickie Lee), about the mistakes made and where they have led him, is heightened into pathos by Lionel Richie’s “Still,” and it is Sting’s “Brand New Day” that pushes aside the depression.

Watts gradually turns the mood by remembering some of his favorite things (“My Favorite Things”). He neatly weaves Lennon and McCartney’s cry for “Help!” around Freddie Mercury’s heartbreaking “Somebody to Love,” and then offers the perspective of The Lion King’s “Circle of Life” (Elton King, Tim Rice). And for a final burst of sunshine, what else but a rockin’ “Tomorrow” from Annie (Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin)?

Directing assistance came from Khristine Zbornik and Watts’s splendid band consists of Musical Director/pianist Steven Ray Watkins, Matt Wigton on bass, Tim Lykins on drums and Peter Calo on guitar. Jean-Pierre Perreaux adds his guitar chops, in addition to, of course, his imaginative lights and sound. Singing backup are Tanya Holt, Lorinda Lisitza and Wendy Russell, three dynamite vocalists adding variety and layers of harmony to Watts’s vocals.

While his tribute show to Barry Manilow offered a delightful hour of reminiscences, Bloody Bloody Lennie Watts aims imagination and honesty directly to the heart.

Lennie Watts is back at the Metropolitan Room JUne 17 & 27.

Elizabeth Ahlfors
Cabaret Scenes
June 6, 2012
www.cabaretscenes.org