Photos: Marilyn Maye: 94, Of Course There's More! at Feinstein's/54 Below

Marilyn Maye: 94, Of Course There's More!
Feinstein's/54 Below
April 6th - April 16th 2022

The month of April always brings a renewal of hope and spring and good vibes and a positive outlook.
April also brings the birthday of Marilyn Maye who embodies all the above attributes and inspires them in her audience.
She has performed a birthday run at Feinstein's 54 Below for something like 7 or 8 years now. With an unfortunate 2 pandemic years of no Birthday shows...her 94th birthday celebration was an event of legendary proportions.
It was, as they say, "off the chain"!
Photos below are from all 10 nights of the run, but focusing on the audience of her actual Birthday Sunday - it was electric and felt unprecedented. Watching the back and forth of energy between artist and audience was literal magic.

Marilyn Maye's performance style and vocal prowess are the hopes and dreams of every new or veteran nightclub and cabaret singer out there. Whether singing a song from the Great American Songbook (like her opening Cole Porter Medley) or the New American Songbook or from Broadway itself... it's as if "No Bad News" from THE WIZ, or "I'm Still Here" from FOLLIES, or "50 Percent" from BALLROOM were specifically written for and waiting for Ms. Maye to interpret them.

Marilyn received spontaneous mid-show standing ovations every night...but we lost count of how many times the Birthday audience leapt to its feet in thunderous applause. These were not your standard ovations. Never a "pip pip", "cheerio", "golf clap" obligatory "well done" of applause. These were moments of pure excitement when the people in the seats were transported so rapturously to another level that they either had to stand and cheer or they might've exploded.
Her interpretations of "50 Percent", or "When The World Was Young", or "I'm Still Here" alone are worth the admission (and deserving of the ovations). The spell Marilyn casts with tone and pitch and emotional connection to the lyric is the reason we go to shows.

Of course Ms. Maye does not disappoint expectations of happy, face forward, positive outlook songs. It's the reason they love her. She rains positivity down on the crowd with songs like "I've Got The World On A String", "It's Today", "Anyplace I Hang My Hat", "Golden Rainbow", and OF COURSE - "Accentuate The Positive". A Marilyn Maye show is always a party...and for this birthday celebration we were ALL invited to light the candles.

Special praise must go to Marilyn's trio featuring Tedd Firth on piano, Tom Hubbard on bass, and Mark McLean on drums. (There was an added performance and filling the bill were Russ Kassoff on piano and Daniel Glass on drums)
These are all musicians at the peak of their abilities as befitted a singer of Marilyn's experience. Marilyn lets each musician shine in moments of brilliance that did not go unnoticed by the crowd. Watching the 4 of them bob and weave and improvise is half the fun.

Photo Credit: Kevin Alvey

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