Carol Sherlin has performed in musical theater in South America, acting varied roles in Spanish-language productions of My Fair Lady, Phantom of the Opera, No, No Nanette and Gypsy. Performing in cabaret, however, requires a different style: the need to be one's self, to engage an audience on one's own terms, or, as cabaret fans love to say, to break down the fourth wall between the performer and the rest of the house. It was that sense of a person-to-person relationship that was missing from Carol Sherlin's three-evening debut cabaret run in March at Don't Tell Mama. An attractive and self-possessed performer with a trained soprano, she appeared more in recital mode, more singing at the audience, than connecting with it. The between-songs patter offered a similar quality, sounding as they had been carefully researched and declaimed from Bartlett's Quotations. At one moment at the end of the performance, in the archaic "I'm walking off backstage now, but you know I'll be back for my encore" turn, she became ensnarled in the curtain, letting out a hearty, natural laugh, kidding about it with the audience, and returning to the microphone. It was a glimpse of the performer I had missed - but, hopefully, will recognize in the future as she hones the elusive craft of cabaret.
Peter Haas
Cabaret Scenes
March 5, 2007
www.cabaretscenes.org
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