Life is a cabaret,
old chum
Tears flow when this
By Tim Ryan
pair sings the songs of
love and loss
Star-BulletinThe magic of cabaret. It transforms the listener -- and to a point the singer -- to another time and another place that might involve a failed romance, a lover not kept, a special embrace under a streetlight.
In Studio 1 at the Musicians Union on Kapiolani Boulevard, you might swear that singers Jimmy Borges and Shari Lynn are, well, in love. They're "dueting" on several Irving Berlin torch songs that they'll sing Saturday night.
Borges' voice lowers, his eyes turn misty when he sings, "Maybe it's because I love you too much; maybe that is why you love me so little ... "
Borges slowly lifts his eyes to Lynn standing close by. Her eyes shine, she looks away, then leans toward Borges, who gently touches her arm.
"We have a musical marriage," Lynn says softly during a break.
But this emotion in song is, after all, the essence of cabaret.
"Every song you do in cabaret, you have to find someway it relates to your own life," Lynn said. "Cabaret drops all pretext and you tell the story the lyricist had in mine. You really communicate from your heart."
The difficulty for the singer is to feel the emotion but control it, Borges said.
"You take the audience all the way, but you don't go there," Lynn adds.
Controlling tears that flowed with some songs was something Borges had to learn from Lynn. "When I'm singing jazz I divorce myself from the lyrics because I'm working more on style. Jazz is not an environment of lyrics."
In cabaret, Borges said, the singer must not break down. But some songs will always grab the singers' heartstrings.
"We've all had experiences where we've showered someone with affection and never got the response we wanted," he said. "It still tugs at your gut, doesn't it?"
For Lynn, the Berlin songs "Say It Isn't So" and "I Got Lost in His Arms" touch her. Even when she says the titles, her voice lowers.
"I've been married 23 years, so I think, God forbid, about the possibility of my husband one day saying, 'Honey, it's over.' I can sit here right now and start crying if I think about that."
The academy show is a preview for performances later this month in Hollywood and Palm Springs.
The impetus to work together in cabaret started with a 10-day cabaret workshop Lynn attended in Connecticut in 1996.
"It was a metamorphosis for me," Lynn said. "We sang from morning to night, crying from the lyrics. I knew Jimmy could relate to everything I was going through."
Borges that same year had retired from nightclub performing because of the noise and other disruptions during performances.
"Instinctively Jimmy and I are on the same path," Lynn said. "We like to reach out and touch the audience."
Borges and Lynn
sing Irving BerlinFeaturing: Jimmy Borges and Shari Lynn, sharing Berlin's tunes, history and tidbits about his songs
