Barbara Brussell: Songs of Life at 54 Below

Cabaret Scenes Magazine | July 28, 2014

Barbara Brussell: Songs of Life

54 Below, NYC, June 8, 2014

Reviewed by Peter Haas for Cabaret Scenes

“This is what cabaret is all about!” That was the sentiment, actually exclaimed in those words, that swept through a standing, cheering audience at Don’t Tell Mama as Barbara Brussell completed her show. The occasion: her return to New York—one visit, one performance—five years after she relocated to her native California. The show was a
triumph.

Brussell began tentatively. Up first were several theater numbers, including Cole Porter’s “At Long Last Love,” Lerner & Lane’s “It’s Time for a Love Song” and a sweet version of Styne/Comden/Green’s ”Long Before I Knew You.” With a warm welcoming audience, Brussell’s confidence and power built: as she finished a moving performance of Sondheim’s “In Buddy’s Eyes,” the audience cheered. Barbara Brussell was back.

Supported by the skillful, sensitive accompaniment of Musical Director Tedd Firth, Brussell’s was a first-class, varied program. The evening’s songwriters included Charles Aznavour (“Happy Anniversary”), Mickey Leonard and Herb Martin (“The Kind of Man a Woman Needs,” from The Yearling), Babbie Green (the comic number “I Wish”), John
Bucchino and Lindy Robbins (“Strangers Once Again”), and more Lerner & Lane: “What Did I Have That I Don’t Have?,” familiar to her fans, yet it felt fresh and moving anew in Brussell’s hands.

At encore time, Barbara gave the audience a choice of two songs—both by Lerner & Loewe and both familiar to her fans: “Almost Like Being in Love,” from Brigadoon, and “On the Street Where You Live” from My Fair Lady. The audience demanded, and got, both—for an exhilarating wind-up—made all the more glowing by having Barbara Brussell back in town.