The lovely Mary Cleere Haran opened the winter/spring season at NJPAC's cabaret series to a sold-out crowd in the beautiful Chase Room last Saturday night. Despite fighting a slight cold, Haran won over the appreciate audience with I Love Lyrics, her traveling show that pays tribute to the great lyricists of the American Songbook, ably assisted by the superb Don Rebic as her music director and accompanist.

Openly with Cole Porter's wordplay tour-de-force "De-Lovely," Haran's showmanship and charm were in peak form as she slowly and craftily built the song to a climax as impressive for her memorization as it was for pure dramatic effect. With her legendary combination of historical anecdote and personal remembrance, both as smart and sophisticated as she is, Haran then proceeded to take us through lyrical gems by Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Lorenz Hart, Johnny Mercer, and the sublime Dorothy Fields, who, perhaps more than any other wordsmith seems a perfect match for Haran's amber-colored mezzo and sharp-edged delivery.

Whether singing a wistful "Do It Again" or her signature "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe" (which she turns into a brilliant three-act play!), Haran is consistently one of the most engaging and mesmerizing performers in the business. It's no wonder that when I come home from a bad cabaret show I usually put on Mary Cleere to remind me how it's supposed to be done. And so should you.

NJPAC's Cabaret Series continues on Feb. 10 with Eric Michael Gillett, Karen Mason on Mar. 31 and Christine Ebersole on June 3.

David Hurst
Cabaret Scenes
January 27, 2007
www.cabaretscenes.org