#1
Posted: 10/20/03 at 11:21pm
The opening night of Cabaret Convention at Town Hall.
Two Hours of my life I can't get back, listening to overwrought, mannered singing.
The first rule of Cabaret singing seems to be : "Be a song stylist. Massacre the tune and lyrics in inventive ways to cause maximum discomfort to your audience". So many followed this dictum. Ann Hampton Calloway singing "Blue Moon" as if in mid-defecation and in desperate need of a large enema. KT Sullivan 'nyuk-nyuk'-ing it though "To Keep My Love Alive". A cute Australian kid with a Tommy Velourish version of "These Foolish Things", complete with shrieks and flailing arms. A rich socialite from Chicago with a metallic, immobile helmet of blonde hair bellowing through "Some of These Days". The only amusing bit was a frizzy haired guy doing his version of a Shirley Temple pick-me-up tune called "Life Sucks and then You Die".
What killed cabaret? Events like this.
Two Hours of my life I can't get back, listening to overwrought, mannered singing.
The first rule of Cabaret singing seems to be : "Be a song stylist. Massacre the tune and lyrics in inventive ways to cause maximum discomfort to your audience". So many followed this dictum. Ann Hampton Calloway singing "Blue Moon" as if in mid-defecation and in desperate need of a large enema. KT Sullivan 'nyuk-nyuk'-ing it though "To Keep My Love Alive". A cute Australian kid with a Tommy Velourish version of "These Foolish Things", complete with shrieks and flailing arms. A rich socialite from Chicago with a metallic, immobile helmet of blonde hair bellowing through "Some of These Days". The only amusing bit was a frizzy haired guy doing his version of a Shirley Temple pick-me-up tune called "Life Sucks and then You Die".
What killed cabaret? Events like this.
"Christ, Bette Davis?!?!"
Updated On: 10/20/03 at 11:21 PM
