BWW Reviews: Jane Scheckter May Miss Bobby Short, But A Lot Of Us Miss Scheckter As Well

With very few exceptions since the beginning of cultural history, the sweet sand passage of time ultimately marches across the vocal cords of the greatest singers of all during their existence in cabaret and nightlife circles. Even Barbra Streisand agrees in interviews that she can't hit the topmost power-notes in performance that she could over fifty years ago. In Jane Scheckter's most recent show, Jane Scheckter Loves Adores Misses Bobby Short, which runs through April 16th on Thursday nights at 7 PM at Cafe Noctambulo (located at the rear of Pangea Restaurant, 178 Second Avenue between 11th and 12th Streets), Scheckter proves somewhat the opposite inasmuch as that the longer the show goes on, the better and better she becomes with her sense of self-confidence and the material. And it doesn't hurt that she has an utterly brilliant musical combo behind her, including musical director Tedd Firth on piano, Jay Leonhart on upright bass, and Peter Grant on percussion. However, in this semi-redux of her 1996 show at Eighty Eights which proved a spectacular Valentine to Bobby Short and his catalogue, so much of what audiences loved about Scheckter going all the way back to the late 1960s no longer exists in quite the same way, whether her previously-flawless pitch or ability to hold a final note for nearly a full sixteen bars. However, by midway through, the audience to a man is reminded of why we fell so faultlessly in love with her at her peak in the first place.

This show, a veritable love letter to Bobby Short's most popular performances at the Cafe Carlye and on studio recordings (and not obviously unlike a similar evening she turned out in '93 at Danny's Skylight Room as a similar paean to Anthony Perkins), does in fact launch to a weak start (which might well have been due to opening-night jitters). A coupling of Cole Porter's "How's Your Romance? with "My Romance" by Rodgers and Hart isn't altogether unpalatable, nor Arlen and Harburg's "Down With Love." But it is when Scheckter takes on "I'm In Love Again" (which was arguably also Bobby Short's best song) that she clasps the audience to her bosom and refuses to let go; THIS is the Jane Scheckter we all come to see at a club whenever and wherever she appears. Cole Porter's "It's Bad For Me" and "Is It Always Like This?" indeed prove additional standouts, and she is very simply at her Scheckter-esque finest with Rodgers and Hart's "How Can Your Forget?" All this plus the fact her patter is delightful, including a wonderful story or two about Ethel Merman before and after singing "This Is What I Call Love," from Happy Hunting.

It should equally noted that Cafe Noctambulo offers a wonderful performance space whose ambience wouldn't have been uncommon at such popular rooms of the 1970s as The Cookery, Les Mouches or Mickey's. It's the best possible way to showcase a singer, not unlike a glistening diadem in the center of a jewelry box, and Scheckter absolutely fits the bill on that score. Perhaps, with some additional tweaking by award-winning director Eric Michael Gillett, Jane Scheckter Loves Adores Misses Bobby Short will take its place among the shows to most look forward to in the 2015-16 cabaret season.

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