Marilyn Maye: Sublimely Sophisticated
"This is a man's song but at this age I can do anything I want," jokes the 70-something Marilyn Maye before flooring her opening night audience with a jazz waltz rendition of Frank Loesser's "Luck Be A Lady." But by this time, somewhere around mid-show the packed house was so fixed in the palm of her hand she could start do juggling tricks with them without a complaint.
Playing her first extended New York run in 15 years, Marilyn Maye's pipes sound positively golden and her cabaret performance, about the closest you'll get to an evening composed entirely of showstoppers, is a sublimely sophisticated hour of inventive jazz interpretations and earthy sincerity mixed with light swing and sharp wit.
Steve Allen gave Maye her first taste of national attention by booking her on The Tonight Show (she sings a playful medley of his "This Could Be The Start Of Something Big", "I Love You Today" and "When I'm In Love") and when Johnny Carson took over he had her appear a record 76 times. With RCA records she specialized in recording potential hit songs from upcoming Broadway shows; a trio of examples includes "Sherry", "Step To The Rear" and, a recording of hers that was climbing the charts while the show was previewing in Boston, "Cabaret."
A myriad of theatre composers and lyricists are represented such as Stephen Sondheim (a sweet, conversational "Old Friend"), Rodgers and Hart (a dizzy-paced "Mountain Greenery") and Jerome Moross and John Latouche (a gorgeously husky "Lazy Afternoon" done with mesmerizing delicacy). Of a certain Jerry Herman musical she says, "Dolly didn't sing every number in that show, so I recorded them all." Her jazz rendering of "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" follows the Jerry Herman tradition of starting light and gradually building to a rousing finish.
With ace pianist, vocal harmonizer and banterer extraordinaire Billy Stritch at her side (along with Tom Hubbard at bass and Jim Ekolf drums) there's plenty of good-natured clowning and one-upmanship. A simple vocal of Irving Berlin's "Easter Parade" turns into a hilarious bit when Maye follows the line "I could write a sonnet about your Easter bonnet" with a string of variations like "I can write a missive, if you would be permissive." (They decided not to go with a certain rhyme for e-mail.)
Numerous highlights include Paul Desmond and Dave Brubeck's 5/4 time classic "Take Five" and a positively smashing "It's Today."
Marilyn Maye's 14-performance engagement ends April 1st, but until then The Metropolitan Room is undoubtedly the coolest spot in town.
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