Milla Ilieva: So Many Nights, So Many Men

In her first Playbill bio, Barbra Streisand claimed to have been "born in Madagascar and reared in Rangoon" before attending Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn. She was kidding, of course (except for the Brooklyn part), but Milla Ilieva can top that one without breaking a sweat. Or fibbing.

A descendant from old White Russian nobility whose grandfather served as a general in the Imperial Guards of Czar Nicholas II, Milla seems on her way to joining the ranks of cabaret royalty. Her latest show, So Many Nights, So Many Men played a special one-nighter on Valentine's Day and it was indeed a sweetheart of a performance.

Ilieva is not one for subtlety. Connecting with her audience with a very warm, open personality, graced by a sweet Virginia drawl, her interpretations of theatre standards and not-so-standards, arranged by music director Paul Trueblood, are pure and direct. She can glide from an elegant soprano to chocolatey deep tones in the time it takes to wink at the ringside customers; something she does frequently and irresistibly.

"Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence", she advises her guests. In the hour-long set, directed by Margery Beddow, Milla presents herself as a variety of women in love, out of love, looking for love or sick of the whole damn business. Opening with "What a Night This is Going to Be", from Baker Street, she communicates her joy in seeing us in front of her while singing the lyric of romantic anticipation.

She makes the most of comic lyrics like Dorothy Fields' sly "I'd Rather Wake Up By Myself" and Laurie Johnson's silly "When Does The Ravishing Begin." A girlish combination of "I Found Him" and "I Could Have Danced All Night" is soon followed by a steamy and intensly sexual "Do It Again." Bits of Al Jolson and Mae West could be found in her showy renditions of "Sara Lee" and "Everybody's Girl."

At the end of her perky "A Cockeyed Optimist", as she sings "not this heart", she makes a gesture to her own heart as if she's offering it to each and every member of the audience. In less sincere hands it would seem a corny and even laughable gesture. But Milla Ilieva obviously means it. Perhaps, in a more innocent way than what Fred Ebb wrote, she really sees herself as everybody's girl.