Maureen McVerry: Love Will Kick Your Ass

Steve Murray | March 8, 2016

Maureen McVerry

Love Will Kick Your Ass

SFOasis, San Francisco, CA, March 5, 2016

Reviewed by Steve Murray for Cabaret Scenes

Maureen-McVerry-Cabaret-Scenes-Magazine_212 Maureen McVerry is a comic jewel, plying her skills on both the cabaret and theater stages for the past 35 years. In this well-crafted piece, McVerry travels through her introspective story arc from the optimism of Kander and Ebb’s “Yes,” to the poignant homage to her late husband on “Love Will Kick Your Ass” (Jim Hyden) and Harry Nilsson’s lovely “Remember (Christmas),” to her hilarious take on motherhood in Jonathan Larson’s “Hosing the Furniture.” A set highlight was the psychotic stalker number “Screw Loose” (Adam Schlesinger/David Javerbaum) from the musical Cry-Baby. McVerry shines as the pleasantly demented character who sings about how hard it is to be “16 and schitzo.”

McVerry has a great segue for every number, replete with props, background projections and costume additions. She’s a mix of Lucille Ball and Gwen Verdon, with enough charm and exuberance to light the room. Attempting tap dancing as a source of relaxation, she is joined onstage by guest Matthew Martin, himself quite the hoofer, for a duet on “Tap Your Troubles Away” (Jerry Herman). Camille West’s hilarious dental novelty song, “Doctor Fillmore,” is comic genius in McVerry’s capable hands. She plays a lovelorn patient whose romantic interlude is hampered by cotton balls and novocaine. Storm Large’s “My Vagina Is 8 Miles Wide,” an ode to the super, vagintastically mystical feminine goddess core, is a riotous X-rated audience sing-along.

McVerry is not all comedy and she shows her tender side on “That Sunday, That Summer” (Joe Sherman/George David Weiss) and a wonderful rendition of Stephen Sondheim’s homage to marital apathy in “Could I Leave You?.” Her show closer, “Murder, He Says,” is a vintage ditty that was sung by Betty Grable (written by Frank Loesser and Jimmy McHugh for the 1943 movie Happy Go Lucky). Again, it displays McVerry’s inimitable magnetism and appeal, much to the delight of the standing-room-only audience.

Tags: Adam Schlesinger, American Songbook, Betty Grable, Broadway, Broadway Musicals, CA, Cabaret, Cabaret Reviews, Cabaret Scenes, Camille West, CD, Clubs, Composers, Could I Leave You?, Cry-Baby, David Javerbaum, Doctor Fillmore, Frank Loesser, George David Weiss, Great American Songbook, Gwen Verdon, Happy Go Lucky, Harry Nilsson, Hosing the Furniture, Jazz, Jazz Singers, Jerry Herman, Jim Hyden, Jimmy McHugh, Joe Sherman, Jonathan Larson, Kander and Ebb, Love Will Kick Your Ass, Lucille Ball, lyricists, Matthew Martin, Maureen McVerry, Murder He Says, Musicals, Musicians, My Vagina Is 8 Miles Wide, Nightclubs, Popular Song, Remember, Remember (Christmas), Revues, San Francisco, Screw Loose, SFOasis, Show Tunes, Singers, Songbook, Standards, Stephen Sondheim, Steve Murray, Storm Large, Supper Clubs, Tap Your Troubles Away, That Sunday That Summer, Venues, Vocalists, Yes