With his new show, Quiet Stars, award winner Miles Phillips took an uncommon approach. Instead of reaching out to his audience in the conventional manner of cabaret, Quiet Stars created a very personal world of Phillips' own, and he invited his audience in to share it with him. He termed it a world "of heartbreak and headboards," and he elected to include many songs from outside the usual cabaret trove.

In fact, there was a certain "do you understand?" quality to the show, for the melodies and lyrics in many of the songs required his audience's involvement as Phillips sang. To fully appreciate Quiet Stars, they had to do more than just sit back and let sounds and sentimental words wash over them. The feelings he sang about were not only emotional but also often sexually raw and direct.

His tunes varied from Rodgers and Hammerstein's classic "We Kiss in a Shadow" to "See Me Feel Me" from The Who's Tommy and "Touch-A-Touch-A-Touch Me" from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Several were from Songs From an Unmade Bed, an Off-Broadway production with lyrics by Mark Campbell to the tunes of seventeen different composers. It included" He Never Did That Before," which metamorphosed in Phillips' rendition from exuberance to puzzlement to anger and convictions of infidelity.

Quiet Stars was a strong show and an interesting one, one that would be difficult for a less versatile performer than Phillips, who is a well-trained actor with a fine and finely tuned voice. Jason Wynn was Phillps' musical director and accompanist. Michael Barbieri was technical director.

Peter Leavy
Cabaret Scenes
October 29, 2007
www.cabaretscenes.org