Review: Karen Akers' COME WITH ME TO PARIS! at Birdland Très Magnifique

There is no fanfare.  No drumroll brings her from the wings to the stage.  Only the sound of Jim Caruso’s voice softly and sweetly inviting everyone to welcome her into the room, and the Birdland patrons erupt into a pandemonium.  Such is the first moments of the Karen Akers show COME WITH ME TO PARIS!, and that eruption, that pandemonium, is all apropos to the moment, for Karen Akers is an artist of the highest caliber with a foundation to back up the reputation, which is why her shows are always sold to maximum capacity.  She is an artist to be seen, and the people want, today, as they always have, to see her.

For her new musical cabaret, Ms. Akers has tapped into an interest that she has, long, celebrated, a focus that her audiences have reveled in from time to time, over the years.  Karen Akers is a well-known Francophile, and we are all the happy beneficiaries of her healthy obsession with all things French.  Many are the times that The Lady has presented similarly themed programs, many are the setlists that feature a song or two coming out of France and the artists who have inspired singers throughout time.  Anytime that it is announced that Karen Akers is doing a French-centric musical cabaret, there is a reasonable expectation for the usual Akers excellence… plus a little something extra, by way of a glint in her eye and a giddiness that exudes from her like a coupe tower bubbling over with Veuve Clicquot.  This is how happy Karen Akers is when swimming in the subject matter of France, Paris, Piaf, Aznavour, Brel, and the most famous French devotee in American musical theater, Mr. Cole Porter.  When France is on the menu, it’s going to be une bonne soiree cabaret.  Bien sur.

Come With Me To Paris! gives Ms. Akers a bounty of opportunities to wax poetic about her beloved Paris, to sing in English, French, and Franglais,, and to share stories that originate from her own life, and the lives of her guides, French and otherwise.   With all the material available to her, Karen deftly chose, for her opening number,  the uber-clever “Ah, Paree!” which was a double treat because of Mr. Sondheim’s witty lyrics, but also because, in Akers’ hands, the song has a stanza that this writer has never heard before.  Armed with a pithy opener that has a verbal Easter Egg, how could the Tony Award nominee not have the crowd in the palm of her hand?  And in the palm of her hand, we all stayed: a glance around the room at any given moment revealed a rapt audience with beaming smiles, shining eyes, and even a hand or two resting permanently over the heart.   For seventy blissful minutes, Ms. Akers took the crowd on day trips (and night) around Paris using the works of Kern & Hammerstein (“The Last Time I Saw Paris”), David Frishberg (“Another Song About Paris”), and the aforementioned Mr. Porter (both “I Love Paris” and “You Don’t Know Paree”), and with each new avenue we strolled together, it was as though the room at Birdland were transformed through a collaboration between Akers’ interpretive acting skills and our own imaginations.  The stage of Birdland is usually crowded with musicians and instruments, but on March 6th, it was just Karen Akers, a piano helmed by Larry Yurman, a mic stand and a cabaret stool… yet it felt as though we were walking the cobblestone streets of Montmarte, the smell of baguettes and Gauloises in the air, and that famous pink light they sing about in “La Vie En Rose” filling the sky.  That is the level of detail and attention one finds in a Karen Akers performance.   Observe the passion present during “L’accordeoniaste” (with a lyric by Sheldon Harnick, no less) and the wistful, almost mournful “Not Exactly Paris” (an evening highlight).  There are those who sing songs and there are those who live them: Karen Akers is the latter.  Maybe that is why the works of Edith Piaf and Jacques Brel resonate so strongly with her, rendering essential entire segments dedicated to the two legends, both sections of the show powerful.  There are, though, stand out moments for each of the Europeans (Piaf, French, and Brel, Belgian).  During the Brel section, a performance of “Marieke” was a bold and blistering triumph for Ms. Akers, and in a late in the show speech, Karen tells the story of the time she went to the Edith Piaf Museum.  During the few minutes of the monologue, Karen Akers grew ever more animated and alive, lighting up the room with the excitement of having had the experience.   This is the ardor audiences seek when seeing an artist engaged in the act of explaining that which holds great meaning to them.  Karen Akers does not hold back, and, in consequence, her audience wants for nothing.  We are completely sated from the experience of sharing in her fervor.

Other highlights in the charming production were hearing Karen Akers sing “Paris in the Rain” in person (the story song is perfectly Parisian and absolutely Akers), a stunning finale of “Je Ne Regrette Rien” that was, alone, worth the ticket price, and a spectacular performance of a brilliantly arranged melding of “Try To Remember” and “Les Feuilles Mortes.”   And, on the subject of the arrangements, Ms. Akers pointed out that her longtime collaborator Alex Rybeck (who does her arrangements) was unable to perform on Monday night, so Mr. Yurman stepped in for him, executing with purity and precision the Rybeck treatments.  Kudos to both gentlemen, and also to director Sarah Louise Lazarus for giving Karen Akers that which she needs - strong hands and intellectual proficiency that she can lean on and relax into so that she can do that which she does best:  tell the best stories we’ve ever heard, in either English or French… though it should be noted that, when Karen Akers sings in French, there is a discernible change in her body language.  Speaking personally, seeing it reminded me of the time I was photographing a famous French actress who, when speaking to me in English, was dulcet and subdued, a picture of elegance and dignity.  But the moment she learned that I spoke French, her entire demeanour changed.  She burst into life, her vocal tones ran the decibel gamut like an electrocardiogram machine.  The lady became, dare I say it, coquettish, whereas she had previously been quietly sedate.  And so it is with Karen Akers - the moment she begins singing in French, a change comes over her, and that’s the thrill of (well, one of) watching her do this show.  All Karen Akers cabarets are the best you’re liable to get, but when it comes to France, when it concerns Paris, when it touches the Francophile within, the impossible happens: 100% becomes 110.  That’s the result of inspiration and true love.   Et c’est un moment absolument fabuleux. 

Find great shows to see on the Birdland website HERE.

Karen Akers has a Facebook page HERE.

Photos by Stephen Mosher