Let's Misbehave! A Jazz Era Romp - copasetic and spirited.

Don't, however, dismiss its feel-good sparkle as mere fluff. The show reflects great care and love for the songs and era, indicating the meticulous musicality and personality of both pianist/singer, Kathleen Landis, host of the posh Cafe Pierre, and 25-year-old Evan Stern, with vocals as smooth as post-Prohibition Scotch. With crisp anecdotes and a solid selection of flapper age tunes, they carried us from the 18th amendment into the collapse of Wall Street.

Talk about behind-the-scenes! This duo pulled up to the Metropolitan Room in a vintage Rolls Royce, dressed in their 1920's glad rags. They remained in character and never left, from their pairing of "Take Me Back to Manhattan" with "Manhattan Madness" through every convoluted perfect phrase of "Anything Goes!" Consider:

"When Missus Ned McLean (God bless her)
Can get Russian reds to 'yes' her,
Then I suppose/ Anything goes."

Landis, an accomplished pianist who flavors her renditions with jazz, classical, Latin, and pop, showed off her nimble finger work with "Fascinatin' Rhythm" and "Rialto Ripples." She saluted Fats Waller's stride with "This Joint is Jumpin'" and "Handful of Keys." Stern relayed the political desperation of "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?" and aptly touched into the pathos of "What'll I Do?," a song Irving Berlin wrote in his darkest moments.

As Landis commented, the 1920's was certainly not Stern's era, nor was it her era, but "music brings us back to any era." One of their song selections asks, "How Are You Going to Wet Your Whistle?" The answer -- wiggle on down to the Metropolitan Room and order up some hooch. Let's Misbehave with Kathleen Landis and Evan Stern, is the real McCoy.

Let's Misbehave! A Jazz Era Romp will continue at the Metropolitan Room on April 2 and April 11. Both shows are at 9:30 pm.

Elizabeth Ahlfors
Cabaret Scenes
March 25, 2007
www.cabaretscenes.org