Maude Maggart: Good Girl/Bad Girl, Great Show

In her lovely new show at the Algonquin's Oak Room, Maude Maggart describes Noël Coward as "a thread between two worlds" of both music and thought. She might as well be describing herself. While rocketing up through the ranks of the cabaret world in the past five years, young Maggart has deftly bridged several worlds, finding a comfortable middle ground in between youth and experience, sex appeal and innocence, soprano and contralto, contemporary and more classical songs. Indeed, Ms. Maggart may well be the perfect bridge to welcome young audiences into the world of upscale cabaret, performing jazzy standards with a very hip and modern flair.

Ms. Maggart's latest concert, Good Girl/Bad Girl, shows off just how much she has learned from her mentor, cabaret legend Andrea Marcovicci. She not only sings beautifully, but intelligently, focusing on the lyrics of each song as much as the music. Presenting numbers that depict women as either virgins or whores, she analyzes the meanings and stories behind the songs, shedding new light upon them whether through new information or new interpretation. Emotion flows through every note, whether it be bawdy humor (De Sylva, Brown amd Henderson's "I Want to Be Bad" and the Gershwins' "Do It Again") or poignant introspection (Joan Baez's "Love Song to a Stranger" and Price, King and Stewart's "You Belong to Me"). When she sings lyric soprano, her voice is pure and clear. As an alto, her voice is firmly in the mask, creating a wild and sensual sound that goes well with the more sensual songs.

One particularly memorable medley begins with the dreamy "The Folks who Live on the Hill" (Jerome Kern & Oscar Hammerstein), segues into Noël Coward's "This Is a Changing World," and then into Mort Schumann & Leon Carr's saucy "Marriage is for Old Folks." Combining three songs into one, Maggart spans decades of men's perception of women, from dreaming of nothing but domesticity to changing times and increased independence.

Ms. Maggart begins and ends the show with songs about Little Red Riding Hood, the perfect poster child for the virgin/whore dichotomy. The legend is a metaphor for feminine innocence threatened, nearly lost, and ultimately rescued by the dashing hero. In the opening song, AP Randolph and RD Whichard's "How Could Red Riding Hood?," Maggart sassily questions that innocence, setting up the evening's examinations of women and their perceptions. Sondheim's take on the legend, "I Know Things Now," suggests some answers to the questions, and suggests that wisdom– the opposite of innocence– might not make a good girl into a bad one. Wiser does not necessarily mean sadder, and anyone listening to Maude Maggart can walk out of the Oak Room both happy and enlightened.

Good Girl/Bad Girl runs until February 10 at the Algonquin's Oak Room, 59 W. 44^th St., between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. Call 212-419-9331 for tickets.