Review: Terri Dannenberg Makes Impressive Debut With EVERYTHING! at Don't Tell Mama

Don’t Tell Mama is seeing a lot of debut shows this year - it’s almost like it’s debutante season in the cabaret world.  And these debut solo shows are all selling out, too… in the Original Room!  That’s an impressive feat for a Freshman outing in cabaret; there are many people who would opt for The Brick Room at Don’t Tell Mama, which seats about twenty fewer people than The Original Room.  Nevertheless, these newcomers on the scene are going for the gold, and they are getting the bumms in seats, luv.  And in the case of Terri Dannenberg, she has filled the more capacious room at Don’t Tell Mama twice - once at her opening night (October 18th), and once again on November 9th, the night this writer was in attendance.  Not only that, but the sold-out house was filled with cabaret industry veterans, there to cheer her on and show their support, as it should be, because, at her November 9th performance, Terri Dannenberg showed everyone that she has chosen wisely by choosing cabaret.  This was a good debut, and Dannenberg should easily take her place among the artists and the community.

For her Freshman outing, the sweet-voiced soprano has created an evening of musical storytelling titled EVERYTHING!  Dannenberg takes her title from a Barbra Streisand song showcased in the movie A Star Is Born, but the appellation aids in setting up Terri’s story for the night, for EVERYTHING! covers a lot of ground, story-wise.  It isn’t a memoir show because those are for people who have memoirs, people like Anita Gillette and Lee Roy Reams, who, regularly, present shows about their fabled lives in show business.  But this is a memory piece, because Ms. Dannenberg is looking back at chapters in her life and using them to inform her storytelling, the way that artists like Meg Flather and Dorian Woodruff do when creating the programs that have kept them on the boards, lo, these many years.   Just because a person is new on the scene, just because a person hasn’t achieved notoriety, does not mean their life should not serve as fodder for their musical cabaret: everyone should tell their story.  Everyone’s story is worth being heard.  And Terri Dannenberg has come to tell her story, which she does with the ease and comfort of a seasoned pro.

For her hour-long cabaret (the perfect length), Ms. Dannenberg has written a script showcasing an ability to get to the point economically, humorously, and with a personal touch that endears her to the audience.  To add sweetness to an already swell situation, Dannenberg demonstrates an ability to recite her script as though she is thinking the thoughts and expressing them in real-time.  Hallelujah!  There are people standing on the stages of the cabaret rooms for years who never achieve this kind of natural quality, people who sound like Eve Harrington giving her Sarah Siddons speech, people who wouldn’t know sincerity if Santa dropped it down their chimney.  It is, therefore, doubly rewarding when a new cabaret performer comes out of the gate delivering dialogue as though they are chatting with a neighbor over the back fence with a cup of coffee in their hand.  And you know something else?  She’s funny.  She doesn’t just say funny things that she has written - her delivery is funny, too, in a natural way that brings us to her.  The battle is half-won, at this point.  

But she can sing, too.

Ms. Dannenberg displays a pretty soprano throughout her show, as well as a refreshing tendency to sing a song the way it was written.  In a world where singers are constantly embellishing compositions with superfluous vocal extremities, Ms. Dannenberg returns the listener to the composers’ original intentions, giving a purity to the sound and the performance.  This also allows her to lean on the musical creations of her band, deftly led by Gregory Toroian, who seems to be operating at a new level.  This is the second or third time this writer has seen Mr. Toroian in action, recently, and not only are his arrangements the best I’ve ever heard him make, his playing is like listening to someone who has been training for an Olympic event in music.  Naturally enough, he is joined onstage by Skip Ward on Bass and David Silliman on Drums, and, together, the three regular colleagues are giving the best they’ve got, the lucky recipients being Terri Dannenberg and her audience.  With her three gentlemen beside her, Ms. Dannenberg is able to lay back, relax, tell her story, and lift her voice in a surprising set of songs that makes one raise an eyebrow and nod the head.

Do you know how difficult a song is “Take Me To The World?”  Well, it is, but Terri Dannenberg took it on (with brief intro/outros from “Something’s Coming”), and she nailed it, she nailed all of it, including Gregory’s voluptuous jazz treatment.  Only the second song of the set, the number was an early highlight in the program, promising more goodness to come.  But it isn’t only musical theater that Dannenberg is sampling - don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of Broadway and Great American Songbook, but Terri Dannenberg’s youth is showing here, in songs by the rock bands Chicago and Buffalo Springfield, country hits by Patsy Cline and Mary Chapin Carpenter, and there is even some contemporary folk in another evening highlight, Susan Lerner’s “The Night I Ate New Orleans,” in which Dannenberg gets to go comedic, and a little bit belty.  Indeed, the soprano came out of the attic for a bona fide belt with “They Just Keep Moving The Line,” and, although her natural register is pretty and pleasing, it would not be unpleasant to hear more of this sultrier sound from the musical storyteller.   

The unquestionable touchdown for Ms. Dannenberg was a masterfully crafted mid-show piece of theater made up of three songs (four, for there is an epilogue) designed to represent her love life.  This is just the sort of thing that audiences have come to expect from the artists who work with Master Director Lina Koutrakos, who has guided many artists to their best and most acclaimed moments on the stage.  The Love Life Montage was made up of the classics “I Got Lost In His Arms,” “How Do You Keep The Music Playing?” and “How About Me” (with “I Don’t Remember Christmas” closing off the story in the epilogue spot), and it is performed without words, without explanation, with no more than a spoken prologue, “Ladies and Gentlemen… my love life… in three acts.”  It is an intro so effective (including the actress’s delivery) that the full house, from front to back, burst into gales of laughter.  This is the kind of brilliant storytelling to be expected from Terri Dannenberg.

And now, if I may, one note for the newcomer to cabaret, and it’s an important one.  Hydrate.  Right after the (epic) Love Life Montage, Ms. Danenberg told an incredibly moving and resonant story about running a marathon, and about training for a marathon.  And after that story about training for her marathon race, she went into her final three songs, one of them a Barbra Streisand anthem (“A Piece of Sky”), and, from there to the end of the show, Ms. Dannenberg seemed to struggle, slightly, for air, for steam, and for voice.  Maybe it was adrenaline, I thought, maybe it was that the material was too difficult, I thought, maybe it was that she hadn’t trained for this marathon, I thought… until I saw her take her first sip of water for the entire show.  There it was.  No water for almost an hour.  When doing a cabaret show, hydration is everything, and the truth is, Terri Dannenberg’s show is everything, too - that isn’t just the title. There can be no penalization for the hydration gaffe, merely a gentle reminder to drink up (in sips, not gulps), and this is it.  Other than that, EVERYTHING! was a near-perfect cabaret show.  Script?  Perfect.  Band?  Perfect.  Storytelling skills?  Perfect. Charm factor?  Perfect.  The play and the player are an absolute delight.  This is one of the most fulfilling debut shows a person could hope to see, that this person has come to see, and that’s the truth; and since this is Terri Dannenberg’s Freshman outing, there should be more performances of the piece before she begins creating her Sophomore show.  In fact, there’s another performance on December 6th at 7 pm.  Get there and get in on the Dannenberg Delight.

THIS is the ticket link to Terri Dannenberg’s December 6th show.

THIS is the Don’t Tell Mama homepage.

Terri Dannenberg is on Instagram HERE.

Photos by Stephen Mosher