Betty Buckley: Story Songs

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Betty Buckley

Story Songs

Joe’s Pub, NYC, September 22, 2016

Reviewed by Joel Benjamin for Cabaret Scenes

Photo: Scogin Mayo
Photo: Scogin Mayo

Betty Buckley’s Story Songs at Joe’s Pub proved she isn’t afraid to continue to explore her artistic journey and sing numbers not just appropriate for her age, but which actually are illuminated by an artist of her vast experience. It was this reputation for intelligence and emotional depth that sold out the venue.
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Her song choices were fresh, if not always wise.
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Her patter smartly didn’t dwell on her past triumphs—although there is nothing shabby about her past, which includes winning a Tony Award. 

Buckley, her great band led by longtime Musical Director Christian Jacob on piano, sang a generous program, with Jacob’s arrangements providing lusciously layered sounds over which Buckley could float freely and open up. Even the better-known songs, like her opening, “The Way You Look Tonight” (Jerome Kern/Dorothy Fields) and that stern lesson in social criticism, “Carefully Taught” (Rodgers & Hammerstein), were freshly realized with piquant rhythms and witty use of the musicians. Guitarist Oz Noy, in particular, shined with his use of reverberations, filling Emmylou Harris’s “Prayer in Open D,” a country song, with what seemed to be the haunting sounds of South India.
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Buckley’s voice isn’t as fierce and piercing as it once was, so she had to find a new way to get to the heart of each song, balancing acting with vocalizing.  She was particularly successful in Joe Iconis’ “Old Flame.”  This was truly a story song, practically a one-act play in which a vindictive old broad breaks into a long-ago boyfriend’s apartment with homicide on her mind. Jason Robert Brown’s “Another Life” was also a journey through a woman’s life, this time charting the deterioration of a marriage. Buckley was more wistful than bitter.

She was less successful with Radiohead’s “High & Dry,” which put self-doubt to a rock beat, and her final song, Peter Gabriel’s “Don’t Give Up,” an overly simple-minded exhortation explained totally by the title.

Buckley did, however, score beautifully in her most age-appropriate choice, “September Song” (Kurt Weill/Maxwell Anderson), which she sang with grace and warmth.

The band was completed by Tony Marino on bass and Ben Perowsky on drums.

Joel Benjamin

A native New Yorker, Joel was always fascinated by musical theater. Luckily, he was able to be a part of seven Broadway musicals before the age of 14, quitting to pursue a pre-med degree, which led no where except back to performing in the guise of directing a touring ballet troupe. Always interested in writing, he wrote a short play in high school that was actually performed, leading to a hiatus of nearly 40 years before he returned to writing as a reviewer. Writing for Cabaret Scenes has kept him in touch with world filled with brilliance.