Mary Stanford: Shall We Dance? –at The Gardenia

  • Post author:
  • Reading time:3 mins read

MARY STANFORD

Shall We Dance?

Tom Rolla’s Gardenia, West Hollywood, CA, January 7, 2015

Reviewed by Elliot Zwiebach for Cabaret Scenes

 Mary StanfordMary Stanford is an elegant lady, a charming performer and an exquisite singer. She handles up-tempos with ease and grace, but give her a ballad and her powerful soprano stuns.
https://www.parkviewortho.com/wp-content/languages/new/lasix.html

In a show focused on songs about dancing, Stanford spun a magical web with“Dancing in the Dark” (Arthur Schwartz/Howard Dietz) and “The Music That Makes Me Dance” (Jule Styne/Bob Merrill), and her voice soared on a spectacular “I Could Have Danced All Night” (Lerner & Loewe).
https://www.parkviewortho.com/wp-content/languages/new/cytotec.html

She also did an absolutely gorgeous rendition of the complex, mesmerizing “Round About” (Vernon Duke/Ogden Nash), a small masterpiece — from 1946’s Sweet Bye and Bye, which never made it to Broadway — that allowed Stanford to cast a musical enchantment over her audience.

Stanford completely switched gears with two Sherman Brothers songs from Disney’s The Happiest Millionaire — the silly, forgettable “Bye-Yum Pum Pum,” followed immediately by a sweet, charming number called “Are We Dancing?”

She also pulled off a true Hollywood moment– talking about the gorgeous dance costumes worn by movie stars of an earlier era, then holding up a photo of Ginger Rogers in an elaborate full-length gownand asking if people in the back of the room could see it. When someone said they could not, she produced the original garment itself — a beaded gold dress with fur collar, worn during “Lets Face the Music and Dance” in Follow the Fleet —courtesy of Stanford’s accompanist, Greg Schreiner, who collects movie costumes.

Schreiner, who provided excellent accompaniment on piano, joined Stanford vocally on a duet that didn’t quite work — “I’d Rather Charleston” (George Gershwin/Desmond Carter, from the London stage version of Lady, Be Good!). Helping Stanford shape the show were Karen Morrow and Pat Whiteman, billed as “creative consultants.
https://www.parkviewortho.com/wp-content/languages/new/flexeril.html

Elliot Zwiebach

Elliot Zwiebach loves the music of The Great American Songbook and classic Broadway, with a special affinity for Rodgers and Hammerstein. He's been a professional writer for 45 years and a cabaret reviewer for five. Based in Los Angeles, Zwiebach has been exposed to some of the most talented performers in cabaret—the famous and the not-so-famous—and enjoys it all. Reviewing cabaret has even pushed him into doing some singing of his own — a very fun and liberating experience that gives him a connection with the performers he reviews.