Review: Dorian Woodruff Goes Places Unexpected In THE LYRICS OF ALAN AND MARILYN BERGMAN

About three songs into his new(ish) cabaret show, comes a dawning realization that there is something different about Dorian Woodruff.  It takes a few minutes of focused attention to figure out what it is, but eventually, the answer presents itself.  Dorian Woodruff is scaled down.  He is simple, he is fresh, he is unfettered.  The chicest man in the industry, Dorian Woodruff usually makes his appearances dressed in the most fashionable of looks - lushly colored three-piece suits pair with silk cravats of intricate patterns or shining swatches that catch the eye, hairstyles showing off his full locks, and, always, the most exquisite jewelry you might ever lay your eyes upon.  But not this time.  Standing in the center spot at Pangea, his face illuminated by soft amber gels, Dorian Woodruff is dressed simply, in head-to-toe black, a tuxedo shirt open at the neck, a velvet jacket tailored to his torso, a freshly clipped coiffure simply swept off of his forehead, and one lone elegant ring on his right hand.  Dorian Woodruff is unadorned.  Dorian Woodruff is unplugged.  Dorian Woodruff is fresh, clean, and seemingly newly born.  Dorian Woodruff is in his element.

This is a Dorian Woodruff we have not seen before.

In his current encore of his show THE LYRICS OF ALAN AND Marilyn Bergman, Dorian Woodruff has not limited his paring down of aesthetic to his fashion choices.  In what this writer is certain people will consider his best show to date, Dorian Woodruff has dropped a curtain, a scrim, if you will, and Dorian Woodruff is saying to his audience, “Come in and know me.”  This program is the most open, the most intimate, the most personal Mr. Woodruff has ever been.  A notoriously private person, Dorian Woodruff is discussing (among other things) a few of the great loves of his life - that is to say, the love affairs.  With frankness and honesty, Dorian talks about the men who have meant something to him, paralleling those romances with certain songs from the Bergman catalogue, but when it is time for the bows, what the audience recognizes is that, for all the loves found and lost, the love that has lasted longest has been the lyrics of Marilyn and Alan Bergman.  And that love, Dorian Woodruff knows as well as he knows how to sing.

And, boy, does this boy know how to sing.

Dorian Woodruff has a pretty voice, that much cannot be disputed.  He also has technique, and there are times during the Bergman show that his technique is showing.  You can actually sort of hear him playing his vocal chords with his impeccable voice control, like a wind instrument, and look at how far from his mouth he holds the microphone - and even though the program is (as usual with Woodruff) mostly ballads, you can hear every single note.  The vocal prowess is in the room.  But let us not forget that Mr. and Mrs. Bergman were lyricists and that any tribute show to them would have to, most essentially, highlight the words.  Fortunately, this singer’s singer is a true interpreter.  Unlike many cabaret and concert performers, Mr. Woodruff is not an actor.  He is not working in clubs while auditioning for plays.  He is not singing on his night off from eight shows a week.  At no point does the acting world enter his life.  Dorian Woodruff’s acting is limited to the ten or twelve songs he will sing, the ten or twelve stories he will tell in each musical cabaret he does.  That is why he is (and probably how he became) such a great interpreter of the lyrics.  When performing these lovely ballads (not, by the way, the power ballads he dove into for his Manilow show), Mr. Woodruff is fully immersed in the stories, especially when representing heartbreak (“Where Do You Start?” - the saddest song ever written) or delirium (“Summer Me, Winter Me” - a WOW moment in this show), and there are even times when Woodruff takes a chestnut and roasts it in an entirely new way, as is the case in his respectful and honorable “The Way We Were,” in which he sings every single note as written, without embellishment (as some feel compelled to), but with an overwhelming sense of joy.  This song may be about looking at the past, but nobody ever said it has to be a sorrowful past and, indeed, in this performance, it is not.  It is a bold choice, wisely and astutely decided upon and delved into by Woodruff and his director of more than a minute, Lina Kourtrakos, who has served her colleague well on this outing.  In fact, many bold choices went into this program, as Woodruff and co. have arranged an impressive collection of songs that you want, nay, NEED for him to sing, like evening highlights “What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life?” and “How Do You Keep The Music Playing?” alongside songs you might have forgotten (or never even known) that the Bergmans had written, like movie themes from The Russia House and Mulholland Falls.  Each choice in Woodruff’s Bergman show has been made with precise calculations that both honor the subjects in the spotlight and that spotlight Woodruff’s story, by the way, the funniest he has ever told onstage.

A man of sophistication and elegance, Dorian Woodruff always keeps it classy, which can sometimes relegate humor to a back burner.  With his script for the Bergman show (and some pretty admirable comic timing and delivery) Mr. Woodruff had last night's house full of cabaret luminaries howling with laughter (no, truly howling), and he manages to bring these gales of laughter out of his audience without sacrificing his highly regarded sense of refinement.  He manages to be accessible while acting out his stories, vulnerable albeit not verbose, suggestive without being sexual, and always focused on the Bergman lyrics, which he interprets like a college professor or a museum curator.  This master craftsman at cabaret is currently shown off as a work of art, properly framed by the Bergman's lyrics, and lit to perfection by his onstage accompanist.  He is, indeed, fortunate to have the virtuosic talents of Musical Director Joe Davidian to further elevate the proceedings, for Mr. Davidian watches Woodruff like a hawk, acting as fellow trapeze artist for unexpected moments and making a little magic of his own on moving solos throughout the show, one that presents Dorian Woodruff in a fashion that is as good as he has ever been and, in the opinion of this reviewer, better.  This new, fresh-faced, somewhat exposed, hilariously honest, and ever-so-deliciously fearless Dorian Woodruff is quite fetching.  Let us all hope he and his Bergman show stick around for a while, for both are worth catching.

Dorian Woodruff will present THE LYRICS OF ALAN AND Marilyn Bergman again on December 9th at 7 pm.  Visit the Pangea website HERE for information and reservations.

Photos by Stephen Mosher

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