Delightful musical The magic of old-style "cabaret" entertainment has returned to Honolulu, thanks to "Seduction," Andrew Meader's delightfully retro production at the ARTS at Marks Garage.
boasts marvelous
cast and content
Review by John Berger
jberger@starbulletin.com
Anyone who loves classic American pop music of the pre-rock variety of the 1930s through mid-1950s can count on a great evening. Meader, who selected the songs and the women who sing them, treats the music with respect. Musical director John Bryan does a masterful job coming up with fresh yet fitting arrangements.
"Seduction": Presented by Tim Bostock Productions 9 p.m. today, March 28 and 29 at The ARTS at Marks Garage.Cost: Tickets $18, with two-drink minimum.
Call:521-9699.
Meader's casting choices may seem quirky in that Katie Doyle and Zania Zambrano are veteran entertainers with high-profile local stage credits, and Julie Capili and Naomi Mal are much less familiar, but there are no weak links here.
Each woman plays a character type. Doyle emerges as the sharpest drawn. She plays the older cynic who mistrusts men and suggests that the best way to deal with them is either on a quid pro quo basis ("Love for Sale") or from a position of dominance ("Peel Me A Grape"). Mal represents the other end of the spectrum; she plays a young, innocent woman struggling through her first heartbreak ("Cry Me A River," "Saturday Night is the Loneliest Night of the Week").
Capili's and Zambrano's characters are enjoying good relationships with good men, although still nursing a scar or two from past entanglements.
THE MOST remarkable thing about "Seduction" is that almost every song seems more impressive than the last one. Nothing feels like filler, and even the obscure tunes work. Zambrano's sweetly mischievous interpretation of "Let's Do It" is the first solo number in the set and seems certain to be one of the highlights, but then comes Mal with a touching rendition of "Cry Me A River" that is wonderful as well.
And so it goes -- some songs pop standards, others less so -- until Doyle sets Mal straight with a slinky interpretation of "Love for Sale" to close Act I.
Act II opens with "I Won't Dance" and includes Bryan on vocals for a moment.
Zambrano is featured on several of Bryan's notable arrangements. "Besame Mucho" is reworked as an introspective ballad rather than a cliché. "Never on Sunday" is also detached from its pseudo-Greek context and given a more serious feel.
Zambrano and Capili are featured on an "I've Got You Under My Skin"/"My Funny Valentine" medley in which Zambrano takes the former and Capili the latter. The singers mesh nicely. So do the songs.
Doyle brightens the mood in Act II with her animated version of "Makin' Whoopie," Capili gives a good straight treatment of Little Willie John's classic, "Fever," and Zambrano turns on the sex appeal in "Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me," the final solo number.
The women are equally impressive as a quartet. "A Natural Woman" is performed as it might have been done by the McGuire Sisters in the 1950s. This is also a highlight.
Audience participation is part of the show. Mal steps off the stage looking for people with romantic experiences to share. There weren't many, but Mal did a great job with what they offered.
There'll likely be a "Cabaret II" coming up, but with three shows remaining Meader, Bryan, and the women deserve full houses for all of them.
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