Cabaret has long welcomed a variety of genres into its rooms, including jazz and comedy. Recently, there's been a sprinkling of quasi-theater pieces with one to three or four performers singing songs linked dramatically by a plot. Heidi Tokheim's Stella by Starlight at the Metropolitan Room was such a show. Tokheim, a skillful actress with a strong piano background, scripted a drama of a young woman obsessed with jazz musician Herbie Hancock. Playwright/performer Tokheim played multiple roles, including Hancock himself.

Briefly, the plot involves Hancock's appearing to the smitten young performer and proving that he is who he claims by sitting down at the piano to play for her. And that's the hub of the playlet -- the jazz maestro teaching the acolyte how to master the idiom. When she gets it, her mentor departs, leaving her on her own. The character's brief feeling of loss is compensated for by the acclaim she goes on to receive from major jazz rooms.

Stella by Starlight was produced by Broadway's Herb Blodgett and Gabriel Shanks, and was directed by Donnetta Lavinia Grays. As a theater piece, it's a pleasant and well-acted drama. But music takes second place to characterization. The result is a neither-nor situation. The small size of a cabaret room was appropriate for this kind of work. But those who frequent such rooms will usually anticipate that music will dominate the program. Stella by Starlight seems to belong more to an off-Broadway showplace than traditional cabaret venues.

Peter Leavy
Cabaret Scenes
September 9, 2007
www.cabaretscenes.org