Sept. 5: Sally Mayes & Beckie Menzie

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Sally Mayes & Beckie Menzie

Sassy

September 4 at 8 pm

Davenport’s
1383 N. Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL
773.278.1830

Sally-Mayes-Beckie-Menzie-Cabaret-Scenes-Magazine_212Here’s Carla Gordon’s review of this show:

In Sass, cabaret veterans Sally Mayes and Beckie Menzie offer excellence in mayhem and musicality exploring sassiness, particularly from the woman’s point of view. Their parody duet, “Sass” (yes, from “Class” from Chicago) is naughtier than the original and quite fun. While both are fine all ’round artists, each brings differing strengths. Mayes boasts a supple, rangy, riffy vocal instrument. This is demonstrated brilliantly in “No Love, No Nothin’,” in which her scatting in multiple octaves and speeds simply dazzles. Enter Menzie, who finds interpretive layers in ballads bound to touch deep corners of the heart. “(Have I Stayed) Too Long at the Fair” has become a signature song for her with its tender reflections on joy, hope and regret. The standout of Sass is a duet pairing “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” and “Saturday Night (Is the Loneliest Night of the Week),” in which the singers ruminate and riff on love lost, while managing to pepper those reflections with a touch of sass. At times, the dialogue could have been a little tighter, but closing with a blend of “I Am Woman” and “(You Make Me Feel Like a) Natural Woman” felt just right.