You’re Not Getting Older …
Greatness is measured in countless ways, including by way of counting. So let us count the years that Bobby Short has been playing at the Café Carlyle: 35. The longevity of an entertainer is akin to the value that accrues to antiques. Some performers are simply old relics appreciated (pun intended) for their former glory, but then there are the antiques that somehow seem more impressive now than they did when they were brand new. Bobby Short fits into that second, illustrious category; he may not have the voice or the command of the piano that he had in his salad days but, in this case, the dessert is awfully sweet.
We were at the opening of Short’s 35th anniversary show at the Café Carlyle, and the mixture of admiration (okay, call it love) and talent that permeated the event was palpable. Known for providing “classic cabaret,” Short did just that with songs as famous as “At Long Last Love” and as obscure as “On the Amazon” (not a reference to Amazon.com; the song dates from the 1920s). Classic cabaret also includes the blues, at least when Bobby Short sings them, as he did in a dryly comic number called “The Empty Bed Blues.”
If Short’s raspy voice lacks range, his eyebrows can still soar; the man’s face is wonderfully expressive, as are his arrangements and vocal interpretations. There is a reason he’s lasted 35 years in one gig, and that reason is on display through June 28th.
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Keely Smith was not happy. She had arrived in New York for her three-week run at Feinstein’s at the Regency and soon thereafter suffered a severe allergy attack. On the night we attended her show, Smith was visibly and vocally upset. Coughing and complaining that she wished she were home in bed, she seemed dispirited. The irony is that while she missed some notes and dropped some lyrics, things weren’t nearly as bad she thought; we’ve seen and heard much worse from perfectly healthy people. But Smith’s a pro and clearly didn’t enjoy performing at anything less than her best. (We experienced something very similar to this when we caught Keely several years ago: We saw her at the beginning of her run, when she couldn’t hit a note; then we returned when she was feeling better and sounded like she was 30 years old, at the height of her powers.)
Her current show is called Keely Swings Basie-Style. She is backed by a splendid nine-piece band, and the Basie Style is very much in evidence in almost all of the arrangements; but the band is sometimes too loud, drowning out Keely rather than supporting her. (This would have been the case even if she were feeling better.) Nonetheless, her song selections were unbeatable. Despite her illness, she scored with a delicate “Mood Indigo,” and the audience was rightfully enraptured by her signature song from her days with Louis Prima, “Just a Gigolo.” Keely Smith continues at Feinstein’s through May 17.
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One needn’t be a senior citizen to get on board the nostalgia train. Michael McAssey is actually in his prime right now, but he’s been away a very long time and has only recently returned to the world of New York cabaret.
He brings a certain amount of history with him that will always mark him as special. You see, McAssey performed at Don’t Tell Mama on the first night of its existence. Now he lives and works elsewhere — in Aspen, if you must know — but his act is all about those early years of struggle to make it in show business. Taking a wry, comic look at his increasingly outrageous bad luck during those years, he is refreshingly funny; in particular, his acerbic, self-lacerating special material is winningly human.
McAssey can occasionally become too broad in his humor, but he has a voice that is as rich, warm, and enveloping as you could ever hope to hear. With Christopher Marlowe at the piano, he sings “The Promise of Greatness” and fulfills the title with comic élan. McAssey is equally effective putting over the poignant “My Favorite Year.” An entertainer who wanted to star on Broadway, he had his big chance in one of the Main Stem’s most famous flops, Late Nite Comic. But it’s clear that he’s a star of any stage upon which he performs.
In his current show, titled Michael McAssey…down a third and subtitled “Same songs, lower keys,” McAssey celebrates his 20th year in cabaret. The show can be seen at Don’t Tell Mama on Sunday, May 11 at 9pm, and at Regents on Monday, May 12 at 8pm.
