Molly Ryan: Put Me on the Naughty List: Confessions from Santa’s Knee

Iridium, NYC, December 14, 2015

Reviewed by Rob Lester for Cabaret Scenes

“I was such a saint last year/But now I don’t wanna play nice,” Molly Ryan teases a certain Mr. Claus and her pre-Christmas audience, opting for the Naughty side of that list he’s making and checking twice. It’s one of her own frothy concoctions. No smarm here—just a wink or seven. Molly Ryan is a keeper: doing a spiffy job zipping amiably through numbers old and new. The creamy-voiced charmer is comfortable and friendly on-stage, clearly enjoying singing, the band, and chit-chat with the audience. She offers sentimental holiday standbys, having made her own list and checking them out as lighthearted happy glides. Occasionally she’ll insert a glib touch of reality to the candy cane sweetness—with “(There’s No Place Like) Home for the Holidays,” the New Yorker adds two words: “Oh, the traffic is NOT SO terrific.” Mischievous Molly Ryan and reed man Dan Levinson in the band are a couple off stage, too, and she references his tradition being another holiday when “The Christmas Waltz” (Styne/Cahn) comes up on the set list, wondering if there’s a song called “The Chanukah Waltz”? A shrug. “Probably something in minor,” she opines, tongue in cheek. Another talented Jewish guy, the jazz singer Marcus Goldhaber, takes a Chanukah break to get into the spirit for simpatico duets, including his own “I Can’t Wait for Christmas.”

Don’t wait to see Molly Ryan; she’s a treat in any season.