The American Songbook in London - Jermyn Street Theatre (preview)
Preview by David Munro
COME to the Cabaret – The American Songbook In London is back, featuring Julie Wilson , Maude Maggart, Karen Akers, Steve Ross and host and presenter Jeff Harner!
The gloom that metaphorically descends on London after the Christmas season is lightened this year by the first breath of theatrical spring personified by a return visit in February for five weeks of Jeff Harner’s brilliant cabaret season at The Jermyn Street Theatre.
Cabaret is something of which London has been starved for a while now; those who have tried to promote it have never been appreciated; Pizza On The Park (once the home of cabaret in London) has turned to other things – The Greenroom at the Café Royal came and went and although the big hotels such as the Savoy or Ritz occasionally feature a cabaret performer, this is more the exception than the rule.
Things were different in the latter part of the last century when the Café de Paris, under Major Donald Neville Willing, reigned supreme over other venues in Leicester Square, the large hotels and elsewhere.
Now, the localities where cabaret should flourish have turned to discos and Karaoke and for the lover of the artistry personified by cabaret there are sparse pickings today.
In the States, cabaret is an art form that takes second place to the big Broadway show; from the glitter and jazz of the big Las Vegas shows to the little supper clubs, cabaret in many guises has flourished and produced its own band of talented performers who make a living doing the rounds of cities and towns purveying their wares of sophisticated songs, show tunes and even country and western to delighted audiences everywhere.
The home of cabaret is of course New York with hotels like the Plaza, the Algonquin and Regency, together with the myriad supper clubs and piano bars featuring well-known names in song at the piano throughout the year.
Jeff Harner has tried to recreate this atmosphere at The Jermyn Street Theatre with artists who are well known cabaret stars. His first venture in February 2007 was a sell out success and he is returning in 2008 with four experienced and talented artists whom, together with himself, will, I anticipate, fill the little theatre between February 12 and March 15, 2008.
This time he is concentrating on presenting artists who have appeared at The Algonquin during 2007, recreating their “acts” for the British public.
The first of these Julie Wilson (February 12 –17) is a name known to older theatregoers and affectionately remembered by them. She made her first appearance on the London stage in 1951, when she appeared at the London Coliseum as Lois the soubrette in Kiss Me Kate. Her rendition of Always True To You, Darling, In My Fashion has never been bettered in subsequent revivals; her every gesture underlining the silkily smutty, sophisticated Porter lyrics and making the number a production in its own right.
She then took over the Mary Martin role for the final months of South Pacific in London and, as I wrote in my recent review of the current touring production: “I saw Mary Martin on the first night in London and her replacement, Julie Wilson, on the final night. ……. I felt Julie Wilson was far better in the role; her Nellie Forbush was a tough Mid West nurse whereas Mary Martin played her as a cutesy, gauche, lovable, amiable semi idiot …. which made one feel that she didn’t have enough brain to have racial prejudice…….
“Julie Wilson, on the other hand, was the tough main street, streetwise opinionated girl who could well have strong views on mixed marriages – a very different reading but one I found more plausible, particularly, as with no star image to maintain, she made far more sense of the ensemble numbers with the girls of whom you could genuinely accept she was one.”
She then co-starred with Arthur Askey in a not very successful Alan Melville-Charles Zwar musical Bet Your Life where she virtually reprised her man eating vamp from Kiss Me Kate.
The show got mediocre to bad reviews but Julie once again wowed the critics with the result the show ran 361 performances.
After that she did a stint in the London production of Bells Are Ringing whilst at the same time studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.
Julie returned to Broadway in 1955, replacing Joan Diener in Kismet, and then touring in shows such as Show Boat, Panama Hattie, Silk Stockings and Hi Fidelity; she also appeared in the film of This Could Be The Night, where she played “Rosebud”, a blonde nightclub singer; a performance preserved on the soundtrack album.
In 1967, she appeared in a short lived musical, Jimmy. Between the ’60s and ’80s she virtually retired to look after her family but she returned to the cabaret circuit in 1983 and was persuaded to return to Broadway in 1988 in Legs Diamond, for which she received a Tony award nomination.
As far as I’m aware, her final stage appearance was in the 1990s when she starred Off Broadway in a Bob Merrill musical, Hannah.
Her cabaret performances continue and she has forged for herself a reputation as a singer, known primarily for her dramatic delivery of torch songs and show tunes. Her recordings include My Old Flame, Live From the Russian Tea Room, Julie Wilson At The St. Regis, and collections devoted to the songbooks of Cole Porter, Kurt Weill, Harold Arlen, Cy Coleman, Stephen Sondheim, and George and Ira Gershwin.
Julie is followed – from February 19 – 24 – by the return of Maude Maggart, whom, so far as I am aware, has never seriously set foot on a stage but simply devoted her career to cabaret and recordings.
She comes from established theatrical stock; her grandmother starred in the George White Scandals of 1926, her grandfather was the star vocalist for the famed Harry James Big Band, her parents met while performing with Lauren Bacall in the Broadway musical Applause, and her sister is pop singer/songwriter Fiona Apple.
Born and raised near 125th Street in New York City, Maude created a stir in Hollywood with her debut show at the Gardenia, when The Los Angeles Times wrote: “Maude Maggart’s talent and imagination offer hope for the future of cabaret.”
Fostered by Andrea Marcovicci and Michael Feinstein, Maude has performed at nightclubs around the United States, including Feinstein’s at the Regency in Manhattan, the Plush Room in San Francisco, the Colony Hotel in Palm Beach, the Savor Room in St. Louis and Schroeder’s in San Diego.
At Jermyn Street she is performing her latest show, Good Girl/Bad Girl, in which she explores the emotional complexities of songs both naughty and nice, and others open to misinterpretation and which has received rave reviews in New York and Los Angeles.
Following Maude from February 26 to March 2 is Karen Akers, another superb performer. Although she too has trodden the boards on Broadway; notably in Grand Hotel and Nine, she is primarily a cabaret artiste and her career in cabaret has made her one of the best known performers in the United States.
She is bringing to London her celebration of the Jule Styne song book Simply Styne about which the New York Times wrote: “You might describe Simply Styne as a moving, witty cabaret answer to Scenes From a Marriage.”
Jule Styne’s catalogue of songs covers all aspects of showbusiness – films (Three Coins In The Fountain), theatre (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Peter Pan, Bells Are Ringing, Gypsy, Do Re Mi, Funny Girl) and popular music.
Miss Akers has raided the catalogue and come up with some interesting numbers which, again quoting the New York Times: “Describes the metamorphosis of the cabaret singer Karen Akers from the demure, statuesque ice goddess of more than a decade ago into the warm, funny, vulnerable entertainer she has become.”
After the girls come the boys, Steve Ross (March 4 –9) and Jeff Harner (March 11 – 16).
Steve Ross might be described as the cabaret boy; he re-introduced cabaret to the Algonquin after 40 years (the last performer being Greta Keller), he has a phenomenal knowledge of show and other music and he’s a performer par excellence of practically any song you ask him to sing.
The “Crown Prince of New York Cabaret” – that’s what the New York Times called him years ago but by now he has justified his accession to his throne as King of Cabaret, not only in New York but throughout the world.
His professional career started at Backstage, a piano bar off Broadway where he sang and played to after-show audiences. From here he graduated to cabaret proper – first in New York then in towns all over the States and latterly round the world.
He first came to London to re-introduce cabaret to the Ritz following which he had many successful seasons at Pizza on the Park. In 1989, he appeared on the BBC hosting live cabaret nights, something he has continued to do for other radio networks and for live stage or cabaret evenings.
He has appeared with or hosted many of the big names of theatre and cabaret whose performances have been enhanced by his urbane and witty introductions.
His latest performance in London was February of this year (2007) in the last edition of The American Songbook in London where he stole most of the notices.
In the new edition, he is performing a series of humorous songs by various composers which he entitles To Wit: Ross on Wry. He will provide a good counterpoint to the ladies who precede him.
Finally, Jeff Harner, or perhaps more aptly “Mr JH the one and only begetter” of the five weeks. He is a cabaret performer in his own right and, if the last edition is anything to go by, a bright and amusing presenter and host; ever on hand to aid and abet the other performers where required.
In the last week, though, he is presenting his own show, The 1959 Broadway Songbook, where he looks at and sings songs from shows seen on Broadway in 1959.
As I said earlier, cabaret is becoming lost art in London, so one should welcome the opportunity to see these consummate artists in action and hope that they will provoke other managements and venues to revive the genre.
London needs showcases where individual artists can hone their skills and at the same time provide an entertainment for the after-show theatre goers and diners; places where the public can enjoy professionalism and good music in comfortable surroundings. That is cabaret and long may it survive!
The American Songbook in London
Tuesday, February 12 – Saturday, March, 2008 at 7.30pm.
Matinees Sat & Sun 3pm (not March 16)
Jermyn Street Theatre , 16b Jermyn Street, London, SWY 6ST.
Box Office: 0207 287 2875