Marilyn Maye: Marilyn by Request (January)–Metropolitan Room
Marilyn Maye
By Request
Metropolitan Room, NYC, January 4, 2015
Reviewed by Peter Haas for Cabaret Scenes
Photo: Kevin Alvey
The lady is a-Maye-zing — especially enjoyed just four chairs away in the intimacy of the Metropolitan Room on a quiet Sunday night. “I love what I do,” Marilyn Maye told her the audience, and her exuberant non-stop performance proved it. With a minimum of patter, she performed one song after another with zest, bantering with her top-of-the-line trio — Billy Stritch on piano, Tom Hubbard on bass, and Daniel Glass on drums — and with her audience. The set list each night of the run was created from song requests audience members were encouraged to make when they phoned in their reservations.
Launching her show with a jazzy, swinging “Cabaret,” Marilyn moved into a Cole Porter medley which included “you” romances such as “Looking at You,” “I Concentrate on You,” “I Get a Kick Out of You,” “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” (as she leaned forward to caress a front-row patron), “All of You” and “Just One of Those Things” (this one with Glass’s fast drum solo). Rainbows, too, were treated to the Maye manner as she wove together a gentle “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows,” “Over the Rainbow,” “Make Me Rainbows” and the sweet, moving “Rainbow Connection.” With “My Man,” she poked fun at the line “he beats me, too” — as if anyone would dare accost this beloved broad — and launched into a medley of “man” songs, including “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man,” “Losing My Mind” and “The Man That Got Away.”
Her closing numbers echoed the triumph of the spirit — those of the characters in her songs as well as Marilyn’s own: “I Will Survive”!, “I’m Still Here”!, “Here’s to Life”!, and what has become the theme song of this 80-years-plus entertainment dynamo: “It’s Today”! Long may there be “tomorrows” for Marilyn Maye!
(Photo: Kevin Alvey)
Category: Cabaret Reviews, New York City, New York City Cabaret Reviews
