November 21, 2003
CABARET REVIEW; For an Optimist in Romance, A Salute From His Opposite
By STEPHEN HOLDENIn the middle of her splendid new cabaret tribute to Frank Loesser, Andrea Marcovicci quotes a character from Neil Simon's ''California Suite'' as complaining, ''You're worse than a hopeless romantic; you're a hopeful one.''
Hope, high spirits and an enraptured engagement with American slang characterized the musical personality of Loesser, who died in 1969 before turning 60. In a musical theatrical tradition overflowing with torch songs, the number of lachrymose ballads that Loesser produced was notably sparse.
But if you imagined that Ms. Marcovicci, who has always cast herself on the hopeless side of the romantic fence, and Loesser would be a mismatch, you would be wrong. Loesser's exuberance brings out the spunkier side of a singer whose aura of elegance suggests a cross between Audrey Hepburn and Dina Merrill. Among the high points of the show, in which the singer is accompanied by Shelly Markham on piano and Jered Egan on bass, are a lilting ''If I Were a Bell''; ''Hamlet,'' Loesser's funny, streetwise plot summary of Shakespeare's tragedy; and ''Baby, It's Cold Outside,'' done as a duet with Mr. Markham with the sexual roles reversed.
True to form, however, Ms. Marcovicci, who is appearing at the Oak Room of the Algonquin Hotel through Jan. 24 (after Jan. 3 she is bringing back her Cole Porter show), has unearthed a couple of killer ballads, the kind of guilty pleasures she celebrates for the ''destructive and damaging'' expectations they instill. ''I'll Know,'' the statement of faith in love at first sight, from ''Guys and Dolls,'' she gleefully ranks beside Rodgers and Hammerstein's ''Some Enchanted Evening'' in its potential to do harm. And ''Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year'' confirms what Ms. Marcovicci jokingly calls her fearful ''Sylvia Plath-like'' view of spring.
Ms. Marcovicci is turning more toward dramatic speech-song in the tradition of Mabel Mercer. The talky, quick-witted style of many of Loesser's lyrics lends itself perfectly to this approach, which allows Ms. Marcovicci (like Mercer before her) to live each song to its fullest.
