Iris Williams: Let the Music Begin

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Iris Williams

Let the Music Begin

Metropolitan Room, NYC, October 22, 2016

Reviewed by Elizabeth Ahlfors for Cabaret Scenes

Iris Williams Photo: Maryann Lopinto
Iris Williams
Photo: Maryann Lopinto

Listen to Iris Williams and you will find yourself remembering how impeccable her song selections are and how subtly they draw you in. Let the Music Begin with the Welsh-born Williams at the Metropolitan Room was an eloquent finale to the 27th New York Cabaret Convention week.

A willowy sophisticate in black sequins, Williams has an ingenuous warmth and disarming wit. With her lush contralto, with a dash of jazz, spot-on sense of rhythm and phrasing, she delivered a best-of-the-best potpourri of up-tempos and ballads. She moved easily around the stage, keeping an adroit connection to her audience as well as to her lyrics, accompanied by a classy jazz trio with Musical Director/pianist Art Weiss, Tom Hubbard on bass and David Sillman on drums.

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“Let There Be Love” (Ian Grant and Lionel Rand) lent a joyful swing, and the elegant flow of “The Way You Look Tonight” (Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields) put a glow on the evening. 

One of several poignant moments was Williams’ rendition of “It’s Not the Same,” a touching waltz written by co-director of the Mabel Mercer Foundation, Alyce Finell, for her musical theater piece, Mabel’s Place. It’s a tender song performed by an artist who can understand, and deliver, its soul and spirit. Another outstanding ballad was “When October Goes” with lyrics by Johnny Mercer and music by Barry Manilow.  Stanley Meyers and Cleo Laine’s “He Was Beautiful” was a major hit recording for Williams, and was here dedicated to the memory of the late Russ Weatherford. Williams admitted she was not enamored with Stephen Sondheim, but her rich rendition of “Children Will Listen” proved its mettle as the moral of Sondheim’s Into the Woods.

Williams has a rangy voice that flows like fine wine over the octaves. “Old Devil Moon” (E.Y. Harburg/Burton Lane) and Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn’s “I’m Checkin’ Out, Goom-bye” were alive with snap and vigor.

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When she was influenced by Rosemary Clooney, Williams turned her concentration to the American Songbook with a favorite Clooney  story song, “The Folks Who Live on the Hill” (Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II). Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson’s “Remember Me” brought the program to a close.

Not to be forgotten, however, are her two well-organized medleys, one for the songs of Irving Berlin, highlighted with “I Got Lost in His Arms,” and the other was a Piaf medley in French—just a soupçon of the captivating talents of Iris Williams.

Elizabeth Ahlfors

Born and raised in New York, Elizabeth graduated from NYU with a degree in Journalism. She has lived in various cities and countries and now is back in NYC. She has written magazine articles and published three books: A Housewife’s Guide to Women’s Liberation, Twelve American Women, and Heroines of ’76 (for children). A great love was always music and theater—in the audience, not performing. A Philadelphia correspondent for Theatre.com and InTheatre Magazine, she has reviewed theater and cabaret for the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia City News. She writes for Cabaret Scenes and other cabaret/theater sites. She is a judge for Nightlife Awards and a voting member of Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle.