Cabaret has long been a refuge in which Broadway performers can take charge of their own destinies (and repertoires) to present versions of themselves that are not dependent on the approval of casting directors to get work from, but with which they can travel the country, and quite often the world, singing. Right now, cabaret is also a useful refuge from the strike: at least on cabaret stages you don’t need stagehands.
On Friday night, I sought my own refuge from the picket lines on the streets outside most Broadway theatres to duly go to a double header of cabarets, and last night went off-Broadway for a musical revue that continued the trend for hearing theatrical music in intimate surroundings. It was a reminder both of the brilliance and limitations of the genre: here were opportunities to see and hear great talent in close proximity – but at the same time regretting the fact that they weren’t being allowed to let their talent fly free on a Broadway stage.
Cabaret can also, particularly in New York, be a rather costly exercise, and here was another rather astonishing fact: the Friday 11pm show for Chita Rivera, appearing at Feinstein’s at the Regency, was far from full. But with cover charges at $75 and minimums of $40 (easy to reach!) on food and drink, it’s a lot to pay for a show that lasts an hour and a quarter.
No wonder cabaret rooms have, over the years, come and gone with such frequency over here. On the debit side, New York has long lost the highest cabaret room in town, Rainbow and Stars atop Rockefeller Centre, which offered dramatic views to accompany dramatic song: I’ll never forget going there for the first time and hearing the sublime Maureen McGovern singing against the backdrop of an unfolding electrical storm behind her. Also more recently and sadly gone on a rather lower-level, in every sense, is the delightful Danny’s Skylite Room on Restaurant Row on 46th Street, which for many years was the New York cabaret home of Blossom Dearie.
But there’s now another rather wonderful jazz and cabaret room on West 22nd Street in Chelsea called the Metropolitan Room, which I hope will adopt Blossom instead. Though the seating is rather cramped, it gives the place a warmly crowded feel, and prices are not outrageous. It’s already got a regular stable of artists who appear here, and on Friday I saw Liz Callaway doing what she said was her first extended New York solo engagement since she played the Duplex in Greenwich Village in 1980, soon after arriving in town from Ohio with older sister Ann Hampton Callaway (whom I have long regarded as one of the reigning queens of New York cabaret). Liz subsequently made her Broadway debut in the short-lived original production of Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along in 1981, got a big break as one of the leads two years later in Maltby and Shire’s Baby, and then was in the original Broadway production of Miss Saigon, before doing a long stint as Grizabella in Cats.
Liz and sister Ann once put a show together for the two of them, Sibling Revelry, that they performed at Rainbow and Stars, and I played my own small role in having that show seen in London when I programmed it as part of the inaugural Divas at the Donmar season in 1998, so I’ve known and admired Liz for many years now. For some reason and entirely without planning it, I keep running into her in town, whether New York whenever I’m here or London whenever she’s there, but I’ve not hear her sing an extended show since that Donmar season. It was therefore a particular thrill to catch up with her again on Friday at last, and hear her doing what she does best. And what makes her an ideal cabaret chanteuse is not just the crystalline purity of her vibrant soprano but also the warmth and generosity of her personality. Yes, I’ve become a friend, but I started as a fan, and I remain one to this day.
Chita Rivera is also, at 74, a force of nature: one of the last of a dying breed from Broadway’s golden age, and as she reminded us on Friday, this is astonishingly the 50th anniversary of the original production of West Side Story (in which she created the role of Anita). She’ll be in London in February at the Shaw for three nights only: book your tickets now!
A more modern era of Broadway songwriting is embodied by William Finn, whose The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is currently running at Circle in the Square (and is one of the few Broadway shows not to be affected by the strike); but he’s also got a hit off-Broadway, too, with Make Me a Song, a neatly put together revue of songs from some of his other shows, both produced and unproduced. There wasn’t much here that I’ve not heard before, though, since I’m enough of a Finn devotee to have every album of his work that includes a cabaret night he hosted himself at Joe’s Pub called Infinite Joy that is available on CD; but this perfect gem of an off-Broadway show will, at least, bring his work to a far wider public.
You'd still think there'd be enough people with the money and desire to see Chita Rivera in a club, wouldn't you?
BTW, Ronnie Scott's was charging £60 to hear the great jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal last week. He didn't sell out either.