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It seems like almost every time we catch a quality cabaret act these days, it’s at Arci’s Place. For instance, we stopped in on a Monday night and there was composer-singer Steve Lutvak performing bright, original new tunes that will take the Great American Songbook into the 21st century. The next night, Karen Saunders opened a one-week run at Arci’s Place that ends on January 27. We were there for the first show and, if we could, we’d return again and again. An engaging performer with a voice that was born for eleven-o’clock numbers, Saunders has that brassy, theatrical style we love. But there are more than trumpets in her sound, which has the sweet undertones of a reed section. Saunders puts the whole orchestra of her voice to work when she creates an original piece by combining "Old Devil Moon" (Burton Lane/Yip Harburg) with "Maybe This Time" (Kander/Ebb). The mesmerizing effect is of a dramatic build to romantic nirvana, and this is only one of a number of high points. The show spikes even higher when Saunders tells the audience the extraordinary, true story of how composer Ervin Drake (who wrote "It Was a Very Good Year," among a great many other tunes) and his wife, Edith, came to be married. She uses this as a lead-in to the mother of all romantic tunes, "How Deep is the Ocean?" (Irving Berlin). At her best in power ballads, Saunders wails on "Gone As a Man Can Get" (Robbins/Bucchino) and finds the haunting romance in "Le Restaurant" (Brenda Russell). Then there is her often-funny patter (she tells a hilarious story about her incredibly huge shoes). And she can sing funny, too: Her bawdy rendition of a song called "Joe's Joint" has just the right dose of sauciness cut with restraint. Indeed, there is nothing slapdash here. The songs are carefully chosen, the interpretations are impeccable, and Saunders really connects with the audience. Depending upon whom you ask (Barbara or Scott), musical director Mark Berman’s arrangements for this show are either fussy and distracting or original and refreshing. One could argue that they draw too much attention to themselves, or that the tension between Berman’s frequently driving rhythms and Saunders’ slower, idiosyncratic phrasing in counterpoint helps to create fresh dynamics in familiar songs. Whatever, we both agree that Karen Saunders is one helluva entertainer. And Arci’s Place, quite naturally, is the place to see her. | |||||||
