Doug Ladnier is an attractive young vocalist with an equally attractive set of pipes that he uses to great advantage communicating heartache, his baritone underscoring every melancholy phrase.

In his show Brick by Brick at Manhattan’s newest cabaret spot, The Music Box, he favored songs expressing angst, dissatisfaction and remorse.  Heaven knows, he did them well, including Stevie Nicks “Landslide” (“Maybe the landslide will bring you down”), Joni Mitchell’s “River” (“I wish I had a river I could skate away on”), Jane Siberry’s "The Valley” (“You walk through the shadows, uncertain and surely hurting”), and John Prine’s “Quiet Man” (“You got news for me, I’ve got nothing for you”).  He even turned the thrust of the somewhat rueful “I Fall in Love to Easily” into expression of a personal tragedy. 

There is a brighter side to Ladnier when he chooses to expose it. With his guest, the perky blonde Coleen Sexton, he lightened up to deliver a sublimely charming duet of “Baby It’s Cold Outside.”  

Perhaps it was the otherwise cheerful holiday season that spotlighted Brick by Brick’s pervasive melancholy, or perhaps it was Ladnier’s highly persuasive delivery combined with the effective arrangements of Ross Patterson.  Either way, it left a strong desire for a few additional bright moments.  With talent to spare, Ladnier came off as a serious singer of serious songs who takes himself and his subject too unrelievedly seriously.

Peter Leavy
Cabaret Scenes
December 18, 2007
www.cabaretscenes.org