Robyn McCorquodale: Diary of a Piano Girl

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Robyn McCorquodale

Diary of a Piano Girl

Laurie Beechman Theatre, NYC    April 8, 2015

Reviewed by Peter Leavy for Cabaret Scenes

Robyn-McCorquodale-Diary-of-a-Piano-Girl-Caabret-Scenes-Magazine_212Robyn McCorquodale is a personable entertainer, attractive, a lilting pianist who sports a particularly fine voice and who presents her tunes with an appealing verve.  Her show, Diary of a Piano Girl, was aptly named, though on close inspection, Robyn’s diary might largely be salt-stained.  As she let us know as she recounted highlights of the journey from her Canadian roots to all seven continents, her travels were mostly as a pianist and singer on cruise ships plying the seven seas.  “Getting to travel the world and being paid for it,” she chirped happily, thanks to her music.

Indeed, if it weren’t primarily a program of songs composed by McCorquodale herself and presented with the added attraction of Peter Calo on guitar, Ritt Henn on bass and Chris Marshak on drums, one could view the show differently.  With McCorquodale off to the side at the piano and a screen monopolizing much of the stage for the videos that accompanied almost half the numbers, Diary of a Piano Girl might well fill the bill of a musical travelogue.

The show opened with “I Still Got the Dream,” picturing McCorquodale in a windblown outfit. romantically wandering breezy shorelines and bucolic woodlands,  and synced so tightly to the music played on stage that you almost could believe the figure on screen was singing.  The song and the video effectively set the tone of the night, affirming McCorquodale’s gestalt that inhabited most of her songs: a woman at peace with herself —emancipated by her love of nature and her freedom.  And certainly, many of her songs that followed carried out the theme:  “Breathing Free,” “Dance in the Sun,” “Something’s Calling Me.”

McCorquodale’s closer, “Take My Hand,” was a nicely done and sensitive change of pace.  Her encore, and the only standard of the evening, “Over the Rainbow,” got an updated, up-tempo 21st Century rendition that missed the yearning, until she reached the final phrases and slowed the pace, “If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow / why, oh, why can’t I?”

The videos that accompanied several of the numbers during the program were scenes of oceans, exotic climes and familiar landmarks—atmospheric complements to the songs rather than explicitly connected to the lyrics, each one beautifully filmed on her travels and edited by McCorquodale herself.  On that subject, as the one-time editor of Photo Arts magazine, I say she’s ready for a feature on that aspect of her creativity.  Still, as impressive as they were, I have a reservation about them.  Were they, as they sometimes seemed, a distraction from Robyn and her talented instrumentalists, necessarily moved to the periphery of the stage, turning the four of them into accompanists to the film instead of being the featured players?  Or, with their unquestioned beauty unfolding center stage on the screen, did they serve as an imaginative enhancement to the songs and the program, a perfect amalgam of songster and scene?

Reflecting on the evening, McCorquodale’s cruise ship history has encouraged a forceful delivery useful in a piano bar where people are engaged in conversation with one another.  In the more hushed surrounding of an attentive cabaret room audience, dropping the decibel level a bit would make her songs even more effective.  And while I personally would have liked a few more standards included in her song list, McCorquodale’s own well-written numbers accompanying her anecdotal history (and videos) and spelling out her credo, made Diary of a Piano Girl an innovative and intriguing variation on the usual autobiographical theme shows.  It was an unusual and enjoyable night at a cabaret.

Robyn returns to the Laurie Beechman Theatre April 14, 22 & 28. All shows at 7:00pm

Peter Leavy

As a youthful columnist, Peter offered dating advice to Seventeen magazine’s teen readers. Simultaneously, his “think pieces” and articles on entertainment appeared in other national magazines. Editing four magazines for a small publisher when the Korean Conflict erupted, Peter entered military service, becoming Editor-in-chief of The Army Home Town News Center. After service, he joined the family business and in the ensuing decades created several companies in the fashion and home decoration industry. Peter signed on as one of the first contributors to the fledgling Cabaret Scenes magazine, later was named associate editor and, in 2007, took over as publisher.