Maura M. Knowles proved that Life's Little Ironies can be woven neatly into a cabaret show. At home on the musical stage, Maura avoided the trap of transferring that stage voice to a club environment, at Sterlings, Upstairs at Vitello's. Instead, a lovely pure, simple voice wrapped around the lyrics to standards "Someone to Watch Over Me" and "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" and new material such as Frank Palmieri's "She Ain't No Nymphomaniac, She Just Loves Men" and "I'm a Fraud" by her young, talented musical director Brett Ryback. A nod to her musical theater background came in a medley of snippets of show tunes with geographical references ("Oklahoma," "Rain in Spain") in which she cleverly mimicked the original versions. The ironies in the show's title included events related to health, accidents and travel. Her accident-prone nature was musically described in a nice pairing of the Adair & Dennis classic "Everything Happens to Me" with the contemporary "I'm an Accident Waiting to Happen" from The Drowsy Chaparone. This Irish lass returned for a moving encore with "How Are Things in Glocca Mora?."
Les Traub
Cabaret Scenes
February 10, 2007
www.cabaretscenes.org
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