Katherine Riddle

Tell Me a Story
The Duplex, NYC, December 14, 2019
Reviewed by Bart Greenberg

Like many of Broadway’s lyric sopranos, from Barbara Cook to Kelli O’Hara, Katherine Riddle is a natural character actress. She seems drawn to songs that convey stories and personalities. Like her predecessors, the young performer offers a nicely controlled vocal line with a sparkling tone. And like them she possesses an intelligence that backs up her investigation of the material she delivers. She even demonstrates a quirky sense of humor with a love for slightly bawdy and quite silly “olde” English jokes, which she shared with the audience with a knowing wink.

She made some interesting choices in her songlist, ranging from soprano standards (“Meadowlark”) to obscure (“Toll” by Jeff Blumentrantz), a comical complaint of a lovelorn girl. Some of the oft-performed numbers (“Stars and the Moon,” “What More Do I Need”) were made fresh by her approach to them. She often showed a wry sense of humor finding the wit in the lyrics. The show also included some interesting pairings of songs to create extended stories: “The Physician” going into “A Trip to the Library” illustrates a frustrated romantic discovering love in an unlikely place.

Another moment that showed her intelligence was her understanding the devastated reaction of her audience to her delivery of “I’ll Be Here” from Ordinary Days; she brightened things by quipping “I promise the next one’s funny!” And funny it was—a brilliantly judged “Mister Right” from Love Life that had earned her a Mark Blitzstein Award.

She received excellent support throughout from her music director TC Kincer, who was capable of capturing the shifting moods of the program. Charming Scott Harrison joined Riddle for a clever delivery of Stephen Sondheim’s “Barcelona.”

The star’s inexperience in creating a cabaret show was exposed in the somewhat formless nature of the overall show. There were wonderful moments throughout, but they didn’t all connect.