Not to mince words, Kim Smith is mesmerizing.  Karen Kohler is right when she says in her introduction to Smith's show at Don't Tell Mama that his face is beautiful.  It is the beauty ordinarily associated with an extremely good looking young woman (he has cheekbones to die for, as the expression goes).  But at some angles Smith can appear pixie-like, and it is easy to picture him in a job he has held, a Peter Pan at Japan's Disneyland. He can with ease darken his personality to move from the pixyish to the demonic, and it is not surprising that one of his songs is the Eisler/Brecht "Mask of Wickedness."

Johnny Come Lately is a dark show balanced by Smith's whimsy, both in his patter (about moving from a small town near Melbourne, Australia, to the big city, the cultural capital of Australia, to the east, to New York), and in some of his arrangements.  He slyly demonstrates an ironic decadence, such as that contained in his description of celebrating his twenty-first birthday by drinking absinthe. For the most part, the songs reflect "You and The Night and The Music," with an emphasis on the NIGHT. Singing songs from American, European, and Australian songwriters, he ranges from familiar pieces, such as Hollaender's "Jonny" and "Nature Boy" by Eden Ahbez, to less known ones such as "Black Max" (William Bolcom and Arnold Weinstein) and "Gloomy Sunday (Rezso Seress and Sam Lewis). The latter, he notes is the Hungarian suicide song. One of his most striking and startling songs is "Missed Me," in which his very strong but flexible voice (he ranges from high to low notes and from dynamic to hushed tones with ease, and this show has received support from the Dame Joan Sutherland Foundation) combines effectively with his pretty face as he adopts the persona of a Lolita-like character addressing a pedophile. Very quickly, it becomes clear that predator and prey have become reversed, although this is perhaps too simplistic a way of describing the roles portrayed in the complex lyrics.

This reviewer had only one reservation.  Smith is such a consummate actor and stylized performer that it is possible to wonder if there is a "real" Kim Smith hidden beneath the very patterned and controlled performance, and the irony that ranges from whimsical to wicked.  He has done another cabaret show called Quietly Kim Smith.  It would have to be a very different kind of show.  Or would it?  We were left wondering.

Smith was accompanied on the piano by Korean-born Ji Young Lee and directed by Karen Kohler.  The show will reprise on Feb. 10th at 5:30 pm and Friday, February 15 at 9:00 pm and Wednesday, February 20 at 9:00 pm.

Additional dates at Don't Tell Mama: April 3, May 1 and June 5. All shows at 8:30 pm.

Barbara Leavy
Cabaret Scenes
February 7, 2008
www.cabaretscenes.org