Karen Wyman: Here and Now

Elizabeth Ahlfors | June 1, 2015

Karen Wyman

Here and Now

Iridium NYC, NYC, May 26, 2015

Reviewed by Elizabeth Ahlfors for Cabaret Scenes

Photo: Michelle Heyden

Bam! Put this pint-sized ball of fire on a stage and listen to her go! Karen Wyman recently visited Iridium NYC for one night only (two shows), packed the house and brought the audience to its feet. After singing her powerhouse hit, “Why Can’t I Walk Away?” from a little-known show, Maggie Flynn by Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore and George David Weiss, you wonder why she ever did walk away.

The late 1960s TV variety shows spotted Karen Wyman’s musical power when she was a teenager and she spent the next years on shows with Ed Sullivan, Dick Cavett, Dean Martin…all the bigwigs. She made some recordings, stepped onto glamorous nightclub stages and she toured the country in musicals like The Wizard of Oz and Paint Your Wagon.

And then it was over. Wyman married and had children, learned about life and decided to come back. She had walked away from the music and she missed it. After 20 years away, she appeared on an open-mic show that led to more appearances, bringing that dynamic voice, as well as interpretations from all she had learned in the last decades.

At the Iridium, her confidence radiated as she faced her audience, sure about her vocal power, warm tremolo, wide range and breath control. These days, she has more to say and is thrilled to deliver the buoyancy in songs, like a racing Peter Matz arrangement of Cole Porter’s “Night and Day” and “Just One of Those Things,” and Hugh Martin’s “The Trolley Song.” “After You’ve Gone” (Turner Layton and Henry Creamer) started off deliberately, building dramatically to a fierce belt and a final line that wouldn’t quit.

She repeated many of the songs from her first show The Second Time Around, including a solid medley saluting her idol, Eydie Gormé. A thoughtful lineup of ballads—”Where Do You Start?” by Johnny Mandel, Alan and Marilyn Bergman, Hal David/Burt Bacharach’s “A House Is Not A Home” leading to “Always” (Irving Berlin)—left me wanting more ballads by Wyman. A nod to the Beatles offered memorable messages from “Here, There and Everywhere” (Paul McCartney) and George Harrison’s “Something.”

Wyman was accompanied by John Oddo, a class-act musical director/pianist leading a class-act trio: Jay Leonhart, who added his bass behind a duet in “Too Close for Comfort” (Jerry Bock, George David Weiss, and Larry Holofcener) and music coordinator and drummer Eddie Caccavale.

Tags: A House Is Not a Home, After You’ve Gone, Alan and Marilyn Bergman, Always, American Songbook, Broadway Musicals, Burt Bacharach, Cabaret, Cabaret Reviews, Cabaret Scenes, Clubs, Cole Porter, Composers, Dean Martin, Dick Cavett, Ed Sullivan, Eddie Caccavale, Elizabeth Ahlfors, Eydie Gormé, George David Weiss, George Harrison, Great American Songbook, Hal David, Henry Creamer, Here and Now, Here There and Everywhere, Hugh Martin, Hugo Peretti, Iridium NYC, Irving Berlin, Jay Leonhart, Jazz, Jerry Bock, John Oddo, Johnny Mandel, Just One of Those Things, Karen Wyman, Larry Holofcener, Luigi Creatore, lyricists, Maggie Flynn, Michelle Heyden, Musicals, Night and Day, Nightclubs, Paint Your Wagon, Paul McCartney, Peter Matz arrangement, Popular Song, Revues, Show Tunes, Singers, Something, Songbook, Standards, Supper Clubs, The Second Time Around, The Trolley Song, The Wizard of Oz, Too Close for Comfort, Turner Layton, Venues, Vocalists, Where Do You Start, Why Can't I Walk Away