One of the spring's most highly acclaimed solo shows, "The Men I Love," which the British singing sensation Barb Jungr premiered at the Café Carlyle in March, returns to New York for a one-week exclusive engagement at The Metropolitan Room, 34 West 22nd Street, beginning Monday September 28 at 7pm. "The Men I Love," which The New York Times said sparked "a small revolution" plays a total of four performances through Saturday October 3.
With Jungr's London-based music director Simon Wallace on piano, "The Men I Love," shows off Jungr's impressive ability to re-imagine well-known popular songs, revealing deep meanings and latent emotional content that come to light when she dislodges the songs from their original contexts. The Times' Stephen Holden calls this "a personal deconstruction that strips the material naked so that you see through any disguises; sometimes the undressing is so radical that at first you don't recognize what is underneath."
In "The Men I Love," which features a hearty mix of mostly contemporary songs -- many of them rock, folk, blues and R&B classics -- (with a number of standards adding savor to the mélange), Jungr probes the inner and outer reaches of love. Her songwriters -- an all-male, mostly all-American roster that includes
Bruce Springsteen,
Bob Dylan, Todd Rundgren,
Leonard Cohen,
Neil Diamond,
David Byrne, and
Paul Simon among others - provide the chanteuse with the emotional and thematic raw material to portray her uniquely post -feminist and highly personal understanding of the male-female dynamic.
Jungr and Wallace share credit for the show's arrangements. They are currently completing work on a studio recording of "The Men I Love," select cuts from which Linn Records will be releasing online just prior to the New York dates.
"The Men I Love" plays a total of four performances: Monday September 28 at 7pm; Wednesday September 30 at 7:30pm; Thursday October 1 at 9:45pm, and Saturday October 3 at 9:45pm. The music charge is $25 with a two-drink minimum. Rated "Best of New York" by
New York Magazine, the Nightlife and Bistro Award-winning Metropolitan Room, 34 West 22nd Street, celebrated its third anniversary in May. For reservations call 212/206-0440 or visit
www.metropolitanroom.com
Photo credit Genevieve Rafter Keddy
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