Neile Adams: Neile Adams Sings Kander & Ebb

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Neile Adams

Neile Adams Sings Kander & Ebb

Catalina Jazz Club, Hollywood, CA, June 16, 2016

Reviewed by Les Traub for Cabaret Scenes

Photo: Ryder Sloane
Photo: Ryder Sloane

Neile Adams and Kander & Ebb are a good match. As a singing and dancing Broadway star, Adams knows her way around show tunes. Although the Catalina stage is not meant for dancing, it did provide enough room for her to do a step or two and display some Fosse hand and arm movements. Her opening number, “All That Jazz,” featured the Fosse moves, complete with black hat. She slid into the Kander & Ebb groove at the outset with this number and kept it going throughout the show.

She established her own personal connection to the songwriters by describing her early contact with John Kander. He was the rehearsal pianist for The Pajama Game while she was in a starring role. They connected again when she was in the cast of At the Grand, the first attempt to make a musical of Grand Hotel, and Kander did dance arrangements for the show. Weaving her own story between songs and giving context to them and sketching the career of Kander & Ebb, she packed a lot of material into a fast-moving show.

As a dancer, she was able to bring a strong rhythmic sense to the numbers. Her matching the songs to her own life was particularly effective on “Marry Me,” which she paired with a commentary on her meeting and marrying Steve McQueen. Her close friendship with Gwen Verdon, starting well before either of them became stars, became another fascinating story paired with “Roxie.”

A well-chosen mix of the familiar and some lesser-known Kander & Ebb material provided a good balance. Her long-time support team of Musical Director Andy Howe and director Ted Sprague know how to showcase her in the best possible light, as they proved again in this show.

Les Traub

Les Traub has been covering the cabaret scene for over twenty years. He is a co-founder and President of Cabaret West and has produced cabaret shows at the Jazz Bakery, Cinegrill, Gardenia, El Portal Theatre, Pasadena Playhouse and at UCLA. He co-produced and wrote a Sammy Cahn tribute show at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills. He is Chairman of the Board of Musical Theatre Guild, where he co- produced Sail Away, High Spirits, Little Mary Sunshine and Street Scene at the Alex Theatre. He has lectured on cabaret in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Connecticut. .