Review: Melissa Manchester A Marvel In FIFTY THREADS: AN ARTIST'S JOURNEY at 54 Below
The artist in the title is Melissa Manchester, and what an artist she is.
Last night, at the Melissa Manchester show at 54 Below, the lady seated next to me turned and said, “Are you crying?” and, indeed, I was. She thought it was so sweet, and she said so; after all, Ms. Manchester had just finished singing “Through The Eyes of Love,” the theme song to the movie Ice Castles. Now, I think I should say this: I never saw that movie. And I can’t say that the Marvin Hamlisch, Carole Bayer Sager song is especially a favorite of mine… I mean, I like the song, I’ve listened to Ms. Manchester sing it often enough that I know the song, I know the words, I could probably sing along if it was on the radio. Nevertheless, I could not help myself from crying when Melissa Manchester sang it last night, and it is all because of the Lady, herself. Let me explain.
Melissa Manchester is one of the greats. She is one of the great songwriters, responsible for many compositions made famous by other artists, like “Whenever I Call You Friend” (Kenny Loggins and Stevie Nicks) or “Come In From The Rain” (The Captain and Tennille), and she is one of the great singers, famous for singing songs of her own creation, like “Midnight Blue” and songs written by friends, like “Don’t Cry Out Loud.” She has one of the recognizable voices, but, then, Melissa Manchester came out of an era when singers had voices that you could spot, if the radio were on and the DJ hadn’t, yet, said the name of the singer. You always know when a Melissa Manchester song has come on. And it’s a gorgeous, beautiful, rich, resonant voice, filled with texture and timbre, as well as emotion and intention. And when you spend your entire life listening to Melissa Manchester songs, Melissa Manchester recordings, when you spend your life seeing, hearing, and noting what a mark she has made on the industry and the art form, it is difficult to not get a little emotional when you get to be in the room with her, when you get to hear the voice live and in person, and when you get an hour-long reminder of just how significant her contribution has been, it can really land hard on your heart. This woman, this artist, this music, have all been a part of our collective history (that is, those of us of a more advanced glamour). So I was crying. I was crying out of pride, out of happiness, out of excitement, but mostly out of awe. Melissa Manchester is awesome and she is awe-inspiring, and I just feel lucky that I got to be in the room for FIFTY THREADS: AN ARTIST’S JOURNEY.
Ms. Manchester’s show, as the title suggests, is a retrospective, a memoir, if you will, a look back at the decades. In it, she tells the stories that are the foundation of her life in music, featuring reminiscences about the friends with whom she has collaborated (Kenny Loggins, Carole Bayer Sager, Barry Manilow and Bette Midler), songs lost and songs found (the trajectory of “Whenever I Call You Friend” is marvelous), and surprises, like her gig playing Rosie Brice in the National Tour of Funny Girl (the audience even gets to meet Rose for “Who Taught Her Everything She Knows?”). She gets to duet with some of those friends during the show (by way of a pretty extensive series of videos) and that’s a lot of fun for the audience, especially when the video duets are brought to the proceedings with good stories about the collaborations. Manchester recounts the conversations that led to the recording of the Ice Castles song, and her being cast as the first, the original Harlette. These are gems she is sharing, woven in and out of magnificent musical performances. There has obviously been some kind of script writing done for the musical cabaret because the hour goes by with clear intention, but it never feels scripted because Manchester is a natural raconteuse. Of course, these are her stories, who else would tell them so well? But there is an actual art to telling a story so that it doesn’t ramble, so that it has form and focus, and so that it also doesn’t sound practiced. Ms. Manchester has mastered the art, which allows her to stay en pointe with her story arc, even when little moments bubble up that need dealing with in real time, moments that Manchester manages with a humor that glees up her audience, like onstage interactions with the crowd or her band, Keyboardist Jerry Sternback and Percussionist/Vocalist Susan Holder. She is straightforward and clear, she is funny and frank, and she is in incredible voice, sometimes shockingly so.
A singer once told me that the natural progression of the human voice is for men’s voices to become richer as they age, and for women’s voices to diminish. Not being a vocalist myself, I took that singer at their word, but if that is true, Melissa Manchester either didn’t get the memo or she is out to prove the theory wrong. This is the voice we all grew up with, singing the songs that are the soundtrack of our lives, and in their original keys. The instrument is unchanged after fifty plus years in the business. The range on display is breathtaking, the power is palpable, and the sounds filling the air at 54 Below are the purist kind of beauty. Even if a person from a more recent generation were to go to see FIFTY THREADS without knowing a single song being sung, they would reap reward from being in the room to hear Melissa Manchester sing. And it isn’t just the mixture of natural beauty from one of the most original voices with technical proficiency, there is also the matter of acting skills. Whether crooning ballads like “Just You and I/Home To Myself” or belting out a character-based piece like “Let Me Bet Good To You” (both evening highlights), Manchester is a mass of human emotion, through and through. Were this a recording, you would hear the emotional content in her vocal performance, but this is a live show, so the expressiveness is also physically present, from head to toe. A great voice is a wonderful thing, but the voice means nothing without interpretation and emotion, and Melissa Manchester brims over with both. Especially moving was a performance of Stephen Sondheim’s “Being Alive” that has an arrangement so unique, so interesting, that I felt like I was hearing the words for the first time, ever. This has, quite literally, never happened to me before, but during Ms. Manchester’s performance of the Broadway classic, I actually felt the same feelings I had the first time I heard the song forty-three long years ago, feelings I haven’t felt or, really, even considered, in many years of just hearing the song when it was on, rather than listening to it. Last night I really FELT the words, the lyrics, the stanzas, the story of “Being Alive.” That is the power of great musical storytelling, and Melissa Manchester is, simply, one of the greatest at the craft. This musical memoir is a treat to take in because, aside from Melissa Manchester’s immeasurable skill at the art form, aside from the beauty of her voice and the uniqueness of her personality, there really is no experience quite like seeing the writer tell the story that they wrote. Nine of the compositions being performed in FIFTY THREADS carry a Melissa Manchester writing credit. That’s nine times we get to see the writer tell the story she wrote, nine times we get to hear the writer tell the story with her own original intent, nine times we get to hear the story from the starting point. That’s a significant experience to take, and when the writer telling the story is Melissa Manchester, when the artist painting the picture is Melissa Manchester, the experience is beyond compare.
See Melissa Manchester in FIFTY THREADS: AN ARTIST’S JOURNEY at 54 Below on May 8th and 9th at 7 pm, with a livestream option on the 9th. Tickets to the live show are HERE and to the livestream HERE.
Visit the Melissa Manchester website HERE.
Photos by Stephen Mosher
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