To borrow a term from Scott and Barbara Siegel, Laura Leigh Davidson sang the songs of Sammy Fain "unplugged," sans microphone. Her soprano voice was strong enough to fill the small room at Don't Tell Mama, and without the mike, she was able to move freely about the stage. Davidson was making her New York solo debut under the musical and stage direction of Earl Wentz, who has been creating an American Composer Series. And with the songs of Fain, both the very familiar ones such as "I Can Dream, Can't I?," "Secret Love," and "Love is a Many Splendored Thing," and less familiar numbers such as Davidson's opener, "Headin' for the Bottom" and the haunting "Strange Are the Ways of Love," Davidson had material that was almost guaranteed to please an audience.

Instead of telling the story of Sammy Fain, Davidson chose to use his songs to tell her own tale, a rather conventional one of girl meets lots of guys, lives a little (a very little) on the wild side, finally meets the man of her dreams, hesitates before marrying him because he intends to be a clergyman and she doesn't want to be a pastor's wife, and finally decides she cannot imagine a life without him. Davidson, who possesses a radiant smile and dimples, does not look like June Allyson, but evokes images of the saucy actress and an innocent age of film in which the kind of plot Davidson was weaving was a plausible vehicle for a movie musical. The question is whether in 2007 this story may be a bit too cutesy. Despite her protestations about wanting to be independent and to experience life, it is easy to think of Davidson as a minister's wife, attending church picnic suppers. When she tries to be seductive and to shock, such as when she sings "Nobody Knows What a Red Head Mamma Can Do," we may laugh (Davidson reveals a comic side), but we have difficulty believing in the femme fatale.

Davidson has a lovely soprano voice that sometimes seems thin when she reaches for high notes, and her personality seems more vibrant in her patter than in the delivery of the songs themselves. What she most needs work on is her body language, for she seemed at times awkwardly unsure of what to do with her hands or what kind of poses to strike. Still, one has to admire her for not using the mike as a prop, for having the courage to dispense with it even at the cost of some awkward moments.

Barbara Leavy
Cabaret Scenes
October 10, 2007
www.cabaretscenes.org