Sally Mayes

Next Stop Theatre, Herndon, VA, June 26, 2014

Reviewed by Michael Miyazaki for Cabaret Scenes

Sally Mayes took to the stage at Next Stop Theatre and made an immediate connection with her audience, delivering a jazzy, scatty version of “Cloudburst.” She warned that the show would be filled with “twists and turns” and went from a brassy medley of songs co-written by her mentor Cy Coleman to a tender version of “The More I See You,” expressing the instant, overwhelming love of new motherhood.

Mayes’s cabaret road took another twist into the sexy, brassy “He Ain’t Mr. Right” before she launched into the cabaret epic “Shopping Cart of Love” by Christine Lavin. Cabaret singers often say that each song is like a three-act play, but “Shopping Cart of Love” really is one—with dialog breaks, plot twists, and six clearly delineated characters—a tour de force delivered by Mayes with clarity and ease.

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She’s continued to show her theatrical chops with a suite of songs from a upcoming project she calls Contradictions of a Southern Soul. Among them “Viagra in the Waters” is a humorous, sly ditty about the effects of a truck of the drug landing in a town’s water supply.

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Touchingly, “Unknown” recounts the loneliness of a widow who describes herself as “a world waiting to be discovered.” Mayes ended with a raucous “Shoo-Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy” and, of course, “Miss Byrd” as an encore.

In addition to her superb connection with the audience, Mayes deserves praise for smart choices that reflect an understanding of who she is as a performer. She selects material that suits her well (or makes material suit her well) and understands the current state of her voice, always making choices that make her sound great. Tex Arnold provided ideal support at the piano, becoming Broadway pit band, jazz trio, or symphony as needed, while perfectly punctuating Mayes’s humor. Brian Stefaniak on lights provided some of the most sensitive lighting that I’ve seen recently in a cabaret show, and Stan Harris provided fine support on sound.