Janet Sanzo

Here’s to Life

Skokie Theatre, Skokie, IL, 8/22/15

Reviewed by Carla Gordon for Cabaret Scenes

Graceful and glamorous in a red gown with silver trim, in Here’s to Life, Janet Sanzo offers a pleasing selection of songs categorized by the seasons of the year and the passages of the human chronicle. Her jazz experience and sensibilities were most evident in songs like “You Make Me Feel So Young” and “Moondance.” It was lovely to hear the journey of “Fields of Gold” in the context of spring and rebirth. Well accompanied and harmonized by Beckie Menzie, Sanzo’s Motown/R&B medley consisting of “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66,” “Ooo Baby Baby,” “Baby Love,” “Lean on Me,” and “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” added needed musical variety and texture. Summer à la Sanzo is sexy with “Do It Again,” a “Fever” medley and, of course, “Makin’ Whopee!” She is more physically grounded than in prior shows, which enhanced the clarity of musical stories. Crossing over from jazz to cabaret can be challenging. In cabaret, the best “riffs” often happen via conversation with the audience, both in relationship to the songs and to the shared human experience. Selecting material with varying degrees of emotional intensity opens the door to richer interpretive variety and connection. Sanzo is most definitely ready to swim in deeper interpretive waters. Going forward, she may want to explore patter with more wit and engagement. Her choice for her theme, exploring the seasons of life, then rebirth, is in no small part inspired by her work as a palliative care nurse. We would have been enriched by even more talk about her deeper and personal reflections. It was when Sanzo announced that she had just recently become a grandmother that her audience was most connected.