Michael Feinstein & Marilyn Maye

Summertime Swing

Feinstein’s/54 Below, NYC, August 25, 2016

Reviewed by Alix Cohen for Cabaret Scenes

Michael Feinstein has known Marilyn Maye since he was a child. Affection and respect pass almost visibly between them. Showmanship is consummate. These two are comfortable on stage and infectiously pleased to see us. The feeling is mutual.

Three opening songs by Feinstein group a pretty ballad with two mid-tempo swing numbers. The performer is playful with Cliff Friend’s “Old Man Time,” appearing wryly discomfited. When MD/pianist Tedd Firth takes a brief solo turn, Feinstein quips, “Show off!” In response to one patron admonishing another to be quiet, the vocalist responds, “I’ll be a quiet as I can.”

This is the new, looser artist. Perhaps within the last two or three years, Feinstein has so relaxed in front of us, he’s quick on the uptake, readily interacting with the audience and increasingly peppers shows with witty references to his Jewish background. Additionally, in the course of Summertime Swing, we watch him channel Jackie Mason, Louis Armstrong, Jimmy Durante, and Jerry Lee Lewis. A “bit” about radically different lyric interpretations lands humorously, but is right on target.

1929’s “Without a Song” (Vincent Youmans/Billy Rose/Edward Eliscu) arrives in three parts: ballad; laid-back swing with Mark McLean’s nifty, percussive drums and Sean Smith’s deftly plucked bass— and foot-tapping, finger-snapping Rat Pack swing. Later in the show, Maye comments, “You’ve got long notes for days.” We hear the first of many here. Another fairly new aspect of the artist’s performance is his vastly increased capacity to dip into a wellspring and, fully controlled, vocally soar.

18 year-old Hannah Vogelsang, a finalist from Feinstein’s Great American Songbook Foundation competition, offers her grandparents’ favorite song, “Someone to Watch Over Me” (George and Ira Gershwin) with pretty backend vibrato. Feinstein jokingly asks whether she’s hard-hearted.
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The youngster doesn’t pick up on his reference to “Hard Hearted Hannah (The Vamp of Savannah)” (Jack Yellen/Bob Bigelow/Charles Bates/ Milton Ager), so he sings a few bars.

I’ve heard Marilyn Maye’s “Rainbow Medley” countless times. The perfectly arranged songs suit her like bespoke clothing. No one inhabits “happy” like Maye. It rises, sometimes undoubtedly against the odds, with jubilance, sincerity and inclusion. One can’t help but feel buoyed. Simply watching her connect with an audience is sheer joy. She can be lyrically 28 or 88. “Why are there so many songs about rainbows?” the vocalist shrugs, eliciting laughter (“The Rainbow Connection” by Paul Williams/Kenny Ascher).

Four bars of “Lazy Afternoon” lead into another familiar Maye number, “Bye-Bye Country Boy” (Blossom Dearie/Jack Segal). Last year, the artist embodied more fragility here, sharing tenderness behind the character’s weathered persona. This time, she seemed tougher. “Don’t look back, Jack…” she sings, then circling aria da capo to the intro song, a new coda changing it up a bit, if memory serves.

“I don’t know what I was thinking,” Feinstein says returning, “Never follow dogs, children, or Marilyn Maye.” He sits at the piano performing a stylish “They Can’t Take That Away from Me” (George & Ira Gershwin) and Jerry Herman’s lovely “I Won’t Send Roses.
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” The vocalist is at the same time understated and heady. “…I’m preoccupied with me…” he sings, looking sheepish. The music swells with frustration.

Herman’s immutable Hello, Dolly! returns to Broadway next year with Bette Midler in the lead. To celebrate, he’s written some new lyrics for the title song which Feinstein delivers partly (fairly well) as Louis Armstrong and partly in his own voice: “…You’re razzamatazz, Dolly/ You’re pizzazz, Dolly/Simply add up to an uncontested ten….” We start with sashayed accompaniment, then morph into up-tempo music hall/burlesque. (The incomparable Tedd Firth can do anything.) Feinstein jumps back in like a trick roper with circling loop.
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Again at the piano, the performer pairs Cole Porter’s melting “Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye” with the Feinstein/Marshall Barer “For Love Alone.” A high point, the duo is hushed and beautiful. Then Maye returns for duets of “up” songs, including Irving Berlin’s “I Love a Piano” and “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” (Don Raye/Hughie Prince), both rife with tomfoolery.

To say a good time was had by all doesn’t describe this evening by half.

Additional Dates: August 28, 30, 31, September 1.