Review: Jackie Draper Charms Laurie Beechman Crowd With LEGRAND LEGACY

Jackie Draper has been working in cabaret for some time.  Last night, at the opening of her new show LEGRAND LEGACY - KEEP THE MUSIC PLAYING!, she broke down the numbers: she and Musical Director Gregory Toroian have been together for 25 years, they have done 22 shows together, and 34 Michel Legrand songs were performed in those shows.  That’s an impressive history for the two artists, and, clearly, over all those years, Jackie has built up a following because The Laurie Beechman Theatre was at capacity last night.This is what standing room only looks like, and good for Jackie!  For an artist to see their work rewarded by acceptance and adulation is a beautiful thing.  And last night’s crowd rested, firmly, in the palm of Jackie’s hands for the entire duration of the show… and well they should have.

Miss Draper’s new outing is, as the title might suggest, a tribute show to the great Michel Legrand.  It featured 19 songs by Legrand with lyrics by the likes of The Bergmans, Mr. Mercer, Sheldon Harnick, Hal David, and Eddy Marnay, and not only was Legrand Legacy a right proper tribute show - it was right proper cabaret.  Draper and co. have done their work, and their work shows.  Jackie has created a script that features a fair amount of history of the legendary composer, but also some history about her own life, and her own experience as an ardent admirer of his music … but the monology never drones.  It never sounds like Charlie Brown’s teacher or a Learning Annex class.  Draper offers a script that is simultaneously generous and concise, and the biggest part of the success of the story is Jackie herself.  She delivers every single bit of dialogue as though she were talking on the telephone, or strolling along the Siene on a spring day.  There is nothing practiced or deliberate about any of it, whether she is sharing Legrand factoids or musing on what his music has meant to her.  As naturally as pouring a glass of champagne or adjusting a beret, Draper simply tells her tale - from memory.  This is important to note, and important to observe.  Today’s cabaret and concert scene is rife with people of all ages reading their scripts and their lyrics off of anything from a piece of paper to a piece of machinery, but Jackie Draper (a true professional) delivers every word (spoken or sung) by memory.  IN TWO LANGUAGES.  As easily as though she were tying a Chanel scarf around her neck.  Again: a true professional.  And it’s good, too.  Whether singing or speaking, Jackie Draper is captivating.  You can't take your eyes off her, and you can't stop smiling, the whole time.  She is irresistable.  The quality provided by the foundation (script and score), combined with Draper’s performance will hold you rapt.  There is a benevolent optimism about Draper that refreshes and exhilarates, and it is awash with glorious music provided by her extraordinary band.

Jackie Draper’s band (Tom Hubbard on Bass, Robbyn Tongue on Woodwinds, Ron Tierno on Percussion, and Gregory Toroian on Piano), provide her with exceptional support.  Mr. Toroian’s arrangements are magnificent, and custom-made for Jackie.  Draper has some vocal limitations and Gregory has arranged every number not only to assist with the vocals, but to show them off.  Jackie Draper’s musical monologues are all, each and every one of them, powerful of performance, but not of volume. Hers is a light, airy voice - pleasant and palatable but not powerful.  Fortunately, she has a microphone and she has Gregory watching her every move.  During one of her numbers (evening highlight “Moi, Je Suis La” ), Jackie was singing very fast (underline and bold very), in French, and Gregory noticed that the vocals were not making it out in front of the music, and he could be seen to gesture to Tech Director Brent Michael Jones that he needed to raise the levels on Jackie’s mic, which Jones did with expediency, bringing to the audience all of that spectacular diction.  It was clear that Gregory Has.  Her.  Back.  But it was also clear that everyone on the stage did, from the musicians to guest artist, duet partner and dancer Milo Saidl.  Jackie Draper inspires a great deal of good will.   Toroian has gifted her with jazz treatments that might intimidate other singers (like a nice “To Love” and a mesmerizing “Windmills of Your Mind” sung in French as “Les Moulins de Mon Coeur”), but Jackie is not intimidated: she dives into them with aplomb and emerges triumphant.  He also provides her with classic, easygoing arrangements for famed ballads like “You Must Believe In Spring” and evening highlights “Dans le Meme Instant” and “On My Way To You” (the latter of which she, movingly, dedicates to her husband, Tom, eliciting 'aaaahhhs" from the crowd), allowing Draper to lean into the acting aspect of cabaret storytelling, which is in abundance, throughout.

Jackie Draper is a storyteller.  She has respect and reverence for the stories in the lyrics, in the music, in the arrangements, and in how they come together with her dialogue, and even though a majority of the written text is historical, there are personal leanings, like the time she met Legrand and spoke to him IN FRENCH about his work.  And a story about family members Elsie and Leon was another highlight in the evening, touching hearts and inspiring laughs.  But to inform this text, Jackie makes use of her musical performances, employing her seasoned voice, filled with lived experience, to layer acting moments into the musical performances.  Note how, during evening highlight “Once Upon A Summertime/Valse Des Lilas” she adjusts her vocal qualities as an actress, diminishing certain words into emotion-laden whispers.  No mere crooner is Jackie Draper - she is a chanteuse, a storyteller, going so far as to never rushing in any aspect of her performance, and always observing follow-through, particularly effective during “Afterthoughts,” a number rich with acting moments in the face, the voice, and the silence.  She does not break character until the band has finished playing.  She gives every beat its moment.  This follow-through is, surely, something she carries into her singing work from her dance studies.  Draper is a well-known devotee of terpsichore, which is why she usually includes a bit of dance in her shows, and this one is no exception.  Her numbers with Milo Saidl (“You Had To Be There” and “The Kissing Dance”) were most enjoyable and seamlessly woven into the proceedings.  Every moment of LEGRAND LEGACY is charm personified, and that comes right from the heart of Jackie Draper, in spite of the Herculean support she has from the rest of her team.  Jackie is, indeed, fortunate that Director Kimberly Vaughn is on board to offer guidance on what in her musical cabaret works and doesn’t, because there was very little offered to the audience last night that didn’t seem absolutely authentic to Jackie Draper, polished, professional, and thoroughly in keeping with what right proper cabaret can and should be, when everyone involved comes ready to do the work.  Absolutely enchanting.

Find great shows to see on the Laurie Beechman website HERE.

Jackie Draper is on Instagram HERE.

Photos by Stephen Mosher

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