Review: Corinna Sowers Adler's ALL THAT MATTERS A Master Class in Cabaret at Don't Tell Mama

What do you hope to see when you go to a cabaret show?  I go in hoping to see great storytelling, I go in hoping to see human connection, I go in hoping to see authenticity.  I also go in hoping to hear great music and great singing, if it’s a music and singing show, but it isn’t essential.  Not every artist performing cabaret is a great singer, but if they are great storytellers, they can get away with anything.  The most important thing, though (to me), is the storytelling and the authenticity.  If that’s the foundation, wonderful things are possible.

Yesterday, I got to see an encore of ALL THAT MATTERS, the show that Corinna Sowers Adler has been playing this year.  A chat between Corinna and her Musical Director, Shane Turner, would indicate this was their fifth time doing the show (four times in town, one time out), and I consider myself lucky they did this one pm show on December 6th, because scheduling conflicts kept me from the previous performances, and I should feel very sad indeed, had I never seen this musical cabaret.  Why?  Because ALL THAT MATTERS is that rare thing: an example of perfect cabaret.  Does Sowers Adler sing?  Yes.  Does she sing well?  Heck, yes.   Does Turner play the piano and arrange her music well?  Oh, my heck, yes.  But that happens in a lot of cabaret plays (if you’re lucky).  What makes ALL THAT MATTERS perfect cabaret is great storytelling and honest-to-goodness authenticity.  The production checks every single box.  Every.  Single.  Box.  Perfection.

With her new show, Corinna Sowers Adler has taken a momentous event in her life (her forty-seventh birthday) and built an entire show around something that happened to her when she turned 47: she ran out of… ducks… to give.  (Sowers Adler is her very own autocorrect: ducks to give.)  And with an impeccably scripted book that has been meticulously matched to pre-existing musical material, CSA presents a seventy-five-minute play (the story arc is incredibly present) about “The Changepurse of Ducks” that examines what ducks are worth keeping and caring about, and what ducks deserve to be thrown out.  It is, in a word, brilliant.  It is, in two words, brilliantly executed.  There is crowd work and lots of it (one of the benefits of the cabaret art form).  There are props (and who doesn’t love some good prop comedy?).  There is Adam DeCarlo’s emotionally accessible lighting design, and there is Shane Turner at the piano providing exquisite (underline it) musical direction.  There is even a beautiful moment of human and artistic connection with the presence of sweet-voiced DC Anderson, in the form of a duet of Sarah Bareilles' "You Matter To Me" (just lovely).  And from first entrance to final bow, Corinna Sowers Adler presents a master class in the art of cabaret, of storytelling, and of professionalism.  Please, let this not be an encore, only, please let ALL THAT MATTERS have more life.

Navigating the stories in her show around the ducks that she is either discarding or safeguarding, Corinna confronts not giving a duck (marvelously) with the Judy Garland classic “I Don’t Care” (complete with Garland’s arm-ography from In The Good Old Summertime) before reminiscing about being the “Last One Picked” (raise your hand if even the title alone sends shivers down your spine), but it isn’t only musical theater and movie musicals providing material for CSA’s storytelling, nay, nay.  The soprano is well served by her interest in all genres of music, employing works made by Brandi Carlile, Amy Grant, and Sara Bareilles, and quite adept at the more popular music she is, indeed, Sowers Adler actually nails one of the ducks she throws out early in the show, “Everybody expects me to sing only the soprano repertoire!” (tosses duck).   Corinna comes out of the rafters a few times during the program, and rather successfully, showing that there are rooms in her vocal house that may not be visited regularly, but they are there, and they are lovely, and they are worthy of our attention.   Particularly moving moments included the Carlile composition “Most of All,” as applied to a monologue about watching one’s parents get older, and the show’s title song, “All That Matters,” representing her work as a teacher, as a ‘Mary Poppins’ who guides other people’s children in life.  All of the monology in her musical cabaret play acts as steadfast bridgework leading from one magical musical moment to the next - and they aren’t all heartfelt, like the two aforementioned songs, because this singing actress (who is present in every word, every phrase, and every stanza) is also a comedienne.  Observe the comical commitment Sowers Adler focuses on a (specatacularly arranged) “If I Only Had A Brain” that comments on being forgetful in your forties, or the combination of facial expression and line delivery utilized in Susan Werner’s cabaret staple “What Did You Do To Your Face?” (Corinna’s rendition is one of the best on the market).  They say that those who can’t teach, but CSA is proof positive that those who teach, can.  She may be molding young minds and young artists, but here she is, a singing actress who does one show a year (one show, if we’re lucky) and always hits it out of the park.  And, to that end, it is worth noting that Corinna Sowers Adler is her own director.   Normally, this is something about which this writer would speak out against - a cabaret performer directing their own show is (in my opinion) a bit like a lawyer who has their self as a client.  Don’t do it, just don’t.  But this teacher and creator knows what she’s doing and this is one of those rare occasions when CSA, the director of ALL THAT MATTERS, gets the same praise as CSA, the storyteller of ALL THAT MATTERS.  Double the accolades.

And while dispensing the praise, it should be mentioned that Shane Turner is a musical miracle, one of the best MD’s this writer and cabaret aficionado has seen in a while, and this is my first time seeing him.  His arrangements of “If I Only Had a Brain” (a stunning jazz treatment), and “Here’s To Life” (an uptempo affirmation of joy) are among his triumphs here, but the mashup of two different “True Loves” (one by Cole Porter, the other by Alecia Moore, Greg Kurstin, and Lily Rose Cooper, orchestrated in honor of her husband Nicholas Adler) is next level, and all of the Turner treatments are here, supplying Sowers Adler with fodder for success.  That is before one even attempts to discuss his ability to set the keys ablaze with his virtuosity of fingers, which is, frankly, gasp-worthy.  Corinna is, indeed, fortunate in her association with the gentleman, which she knows, having declared, mid-performance, that he is one of the ducks she intends to keep in her changepurse.   And while she keeps him in her changepurse, let us all keep her in ours because, once again, Corinna Sowers Adler has proven that she is an artist to admire, a storyteller to enjoy, and a light in the community to be nurtured and absorbed.   She may be teaching those kids over at NiCori Studios over in New Jersey, but through her artistry and humanity, she is teaching audiences here in New York how to embrace life, and other artists how to make the most out of their moments on the cabaret stage.  When a storyteller teaches, when an artist illuminates, when another person inspires, it's a good day.  ALL THAT MATTERS is all that’s good.

Find great shows to see at Don't Tell Mama HERE.

Visit the Corinna Sowers Adler website HERE.

Photos by Stephen Mosher