Karen Mason

Steve Murray | May 8, 2016

Karen Mason

Feinstein’s at the Nikko, San Francisco, CA, May 6, 2016

Reviewed by Steve Murray for Cabaret Scenes

Photo: Maryann Lopinto

Sometimes at a cabaret show you get beer. Sometimes a well drink will suffice. But when you want absolute top of the shelf, you want Karen Mason. When they write the history of modern cabaret, Mason will figure prominently, not just for her trophy case of awards, but for her enduring legacy of impeccably crafted performances showcasing her intelligent song selection and beautiful, resonant voice.

Harkening back to her cabaret beginning with songwriter/arranger Brian Lasser in 1983, Mason opened with a dramatic and simmering arrangement of Leonard Bernstein/Stephen Sondheim’s “Something’s Coming,” followed by an uptempo “Almost Like Being in Love” (Lerner & Loewe). Her tone and phrasing are immaculate, as always. Able to turn on a dime, Mason pulls off the comic Jimmy McHugh/ Frank Loesser “Murder He Says,” almost channeling the fabulous Betty Hutton and her hit from the 1942 film Happy Go Lucky.

Working with songwriters/arrangers like this evening’s musical director/pianist Christopher Denny, Mason quipped that “it meant I could sing songs NOT recorded by Barbra Streisand.” Denny’s brilliant mashup of “Help!” (Lennon/McCartney) with Sondheim’s “Being Alive” is as seamless a medley as you’ll hear. Mason captures the plaintive Beatles call for help, singing his poignant plea of “Help, you know I need someone” which falls naturally into “Being Alive”’s emotional flowering. She brings her raw expressiveness to two other Lasser arrangements, “I Made a New Friend” (Lasser) and “I Want to Be With You”/”Lorna’s Here” (Charles Strouse/Lee Adams) from Golden Boy.

A couple of standing ovations and two showstoppers later—Sunset Boulevard’s “As If We Never Said Goodbye” (lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber) and Arlen/Harburg’s “Over the Rainbow”—Mason closed sweetly with her marriage equality anthem “It’s About Time,” written by husband Paul Rolnick with music by cabaret pianist Shelly Markham, and John Lennon’s wistful “In My Life.” Classy, affable and endearing, Mason embodies the best of live cabaret.

Tags: Alan Jay Lerner, Almost Like Being in Love, American Songbook, Andrew Lloyd Webber, As If We Never Said Goodbye, Barbra Streisand, Being Alive, Betty Hutton, Brian Lasser, Broadway Musicals, Cabaret, Cabaret Reviews, Cabaret Scenes, CD, Charles Strouse, Christopher Denny, Christopher Hampton, Clubs, Composers, Don Black, EY “Yip” Harburg, Feinstein's at the Nikko, Frank Loesser, Frederick Loewe, Golden Boy, Great American Songbook, Happy Go Lucky, Harold Arlen, Help, I Made A New Friend, I Want to Be With You, In My Life, It's About Time, Jazz, Jazz Singers, Jimmy McHugh, John Lennon, Karen Mason, Lee Adams, Leonard Bernstein, Lorna’s Here, lyricists, Maryann Lopinto, Murder He Says, Musicals, Musicians, Nightclubs, Over the Rainbow, Paul McCartney, Paul Rolnick, Popular Song, Revues, San Francisco, Shelly Markham, Show Tunes, Singers, Something’s Coming, Songbook, Standards, Stephen Sondheim, Steve Murray, Sunset Boulevard, Supper Clubs, The Beatles, Venues, Vocalists