Jerry Bisantz, Lynda D’Amour, Bill Spera
A, B, C: The Cabaret Experience
Whistler House Museum, Lowell, MA, September 15, 2017
Reviewed by John Amodeo for Cabaret Scenes
It’s not every day you attend a cabaret show consisting almost entirely of pop songs, but this refreshing eclectic collection of radio hits from the ‘70s and ‘80s was deftly held together by Jerry Bisantz, Lynda D’Amour and Bill Spera with excellent support from pianist Ian Chin. Keeping with the theme, there were songs (co-)written by Peter Allen, Burt Bacharach and Bobby Caldwell, and others introduced by ABBA, Pat Benatar, and Glen Campbell. This is not your grandmother’s cabaret show.
Though Bisantz, an experienced thespian, converses easily with the audience, he never really settles into the core of a song, and his coarse bravado doesn’t naturally lend itself to cabaret. Some happy exceptions included his poignant and focused delivery of “Silver Thunderbird” (Marc Cohn), introduced with genuine nostalgia for an era when cars had class. He followed this with a straight-shooting “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” that would do Jim Croce proud.
Spera employed his warm, buttery vocals on such pop gems as “Haven’t Met You Yet” (Michael Bublé/Alan Chang/Amy Foster-Giles), and Shirley Bassey’s hit “Diamond Are Forever” (John Barry/Don Black), but I would like him to stay more focused, making a better connection with the lyrics and the audience. He found his stride, however, with a pairing of two beautiful Leslie Bricusse/Anthony Newley songs: “Look at That Face” and “Who Can I Turn to (When Nobody Needs Me?),” sincerely and powerfully sung, smartly trading Newley’s vocal histrionics for a nuanced delivery with just the right dose of vibrato at the end of line.
D’Amour, the most polished of the three, was a joy to watch, inhabiting the lyrics so deeply that she became the audience surrogate, putting us in her place with each song. She turned Benatar’s “We Belong” (Eric Lowe/Dan Navarro) into a celebratory anthem, and Caldwell/Alfons Kettner’s “What You Won’t Do for Love” into a vocally creative R & B, employing impressive dynamic range and power. She amused and impressed playing the ukulele on “Hooked on a Feeling” (Mark James, recorded by B.J. Thomas and later by Blue Swede) while still conveying warmth and vocal sincerity. But she showed what a good singing actress she is on the Basia-recorded “Until You Come Back to Me (That’s What I’m Gonna Do)” (Morris Broadnax/Clarence Paul/Stevie Wonder) where she cycled through a full range of emotions: happy, wistful, urgent, sometimes within the span of one line. And she had us riveted during “I Won’t Last a Day Without You” (recorded by the Carpenters and also by Paul Williams who co-wrote it with Roger Nichols). So engrossed in the song was she that as she sang the line “I can face all the madness this world has to give,” she looked at the palm of her hand on the word “madness,” as if that is where it lay. It is these split-second gestures that D’Amour makes that lend authenticity to her every performance.
The Whistler House Museum, the birthplace of James Whistler (of “Whistler’s Mother” fame), is a charming 19th century historic home filled with an impressive collection of period furniture and paintings, mostly by local artists. This show is its first venture into using an underutilized outbuilding for cabaret. It is perfectly proportioned to accommodate the intimacy of cabaret, and there isn’t a bad seat in the house. The management plans to invest in professional sound and lights (which this show lacked), which will go a long way to properly presenting cabaret. May they continue to present fine cabaret to local audiences.