Cabaret Scenes Review - Barbara Cook

Barbara Cook is nothing short of breathtaking at her new show at Café Carlyle. A half-century after becoming one of Broadway musical theater’s major headliners, the purity of her singing – if a tad lower than when she was Marian the Librarian – still sparkles and her personal warmth pervades the room like a soft summer breeze.

Cook’s Love Is Good For Anything That Ails You is primarily a compendium of long-cherished standards, songs she claims she’s wanted to do “for a long, long time.” Giving up, she said, trying to find reasons to justify her choices, she cheerfully introduced the program with the rhetorical question, “What the hell is wrong with a show that’s all about love songs?”

From this reviewer’s point of view: Nothing at all. Especially when Barbara Cook is the vocalist. The song list included enough familiar tunes to allow everyone to reminisce. Rodgers and Hart’s “Where or When,” Irving Berlin’s “I Got Lost in His Arms,” Burton Lane and Yip Harburg’s “Old Devil Moon.” And song lover that she is, Cook carefully identified the composers and lyricists as she introed each number.

Cook did include a delightful ballad by contemporary songsmith John Buccino, “If I Ever Say I’m Over You.” As familiar as the other love songs were, her renditions varied from straight ballads to jazz and were very much Cook’s own take on them. Sigmund Romberg and Oscar Hammerstein II’s “Lover, Come Back to Me” was sung briskly, with spirit. “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter” was dreamy and plaintive. Ray Charles’ “Hallelujah, I Love Him So” got the jazz treatment and Peter Allen’s “Harbour” was almost spiritual. Thoroughly captivating as she was with all her songs, still the most moving moment was her encore, when Cook returned to the stage and, without a microphone, sang “For All We Know”. It closed a night to treasure.

Barbara Cook and Love Is Good For Anything That Ails You is at Café Carlyle through April 12th. If the lofty cover charge is daunting, there’s a lesser charge for patrons who sit (or stand) at the bar. And Barbara Cook, if you have to do it, is worth breaking the piggy bank for.

Peter Leavy
Cabaret Scenes
March 5, 2008
www.cabaretscenes.org



	Barbara Cook Love Is Good For Anything That Ails You Cafe Carlyle New York, NY
Barbara Cook is nothing short of breathtaking at her new show at Café Carlyle. A half-century after becoming one of Broadway musical theater’s major headliners, the purity of her singing – if a tad lower than when she was Marian the Librarian – still sparkles and her personal warmth pervades the room like a soft summer breeze. Cook’s Love Is Good For Anything That Ails You is primarily a compendium of long-cherished standards, songs she claims she’s wanted to do “for a long, long time.” Giving up, she said, trying to find reasons to justify her choices, she cheerfully introduced the program with the rhetorical question, “What the hell is wrong with a show that’s all about love songs?” From this reviewer’s point of view: Nothing at all. Especially when Barbara Cook is the vocalist. The song list included enough familiar tunes to allow everyone to reminisce. Rodgers and Hart’s “Where or When,” Irving Berlin’s “I Got Lost in His Arms,” Burton Lane and Yip Harburg’s “Old Devil Moon.” And song lover that she is, Cook carefully identified the composers and lyricists as she introed each number. Cook did include a delightful ballad by contemporary songsmith John Buccino, “If I Ever Say I’m Over You.” As familiar as the other love songs were, her renditions varied from straight ballads to jazz and were very much Cook’s own take on them. Sigmund Romberg and Oscar Hammerstein II’s “Lover, Come Back to Me” was sung briskly, with spirit. “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter” was dreamy and plaintive. Ray Charles’ “Hallelujah, I Love Him So” got the jazz treatment and Peter Allen’s “Harbour” was almost spiritual. Thoroughly captivating as she was with all her songs, still the most moving moment was her encore, when Cook returned to the stage and, without a microphone, sang “For All We Know”. It closed a night to treasure. Barbara Cook and Love Is Good For Anything That Ails You is at Café Carlyle through April 12th. If the lofty cover charge is daunting, there’s a lesser charge for patrons who sit (or stand) at the bar. And Barbara Cook, if you have to do it, is worth breaking the piggy bank for. Peter Leavy Cabaret Scenes March 5, 2008 www.cabaretscenes.org

Barbara Cook

Love Is Good For Anything That Ails You

Cafe CarlyleNew York, NY

Barbara Cook and Love Is Good For Anything That Ails You is at Café Carlyle through April 12th. If the lofty cover charge is daunting, there’s a lesser charge for patrons who sit (or stand) at the bar. And Barbara Cook, if you have to do it, is worth breaking the piggy bank for.

Cafe Carlyle
New York, NY