Anne-Marie Valdivia
Too Old to Die Young
Tom Rolla’s Gardenia, West Hollywood, CA, March 23, 2018
Reviewed by Elliot Zwiebach for Cabaret Scenes
Watching Anne-Marie Valdivia perform, you’ve just gotta love her! Totally charming and delightful, she made her solo cabaret debut in glorious style, with a wide range of songs that each packed a wallop, whether she was going for a laugh or a tear.
After amusing the audience with tales of her teenage years, when she was determined to meet and marry Elvis Presley — illustrated by “Burning Love” (Dennis Linde) — Valdivia shook up the mood in the room as she reflected on her mother’s death with a soft, gentle rendition of “Take It with Me” (Tom Waits/Kathleen Brennan) that was delivered with palpable emotion. She was also moving on John Prine’s “Hello in There,” using a simple, straightforward delivery to convey the song’s reflection on loneliness, and she was sweet and sincere on John Bucchino’s moving “ Coney Island.”
But the evening — directed by Pat Whiteman — was mostly upbeat, including a sweet rendition of Francesca Blumenthal’s “Between Men,” on which Valdivia shared the vocals with music director/pianist Ron Snyder; “Not Me, Not Me,” Christine Lavin’s paean to the benefits of avoiding exercise; and Lavin’s “It’s Your Funeral,” an hilariously brilliant offering on how to exit the world, which Valdivia used as an encore as she sang her way out of the room.
She was amusingly poignant on “If He Were Straight and I Was Young” (Blumenthal/Ronny Whyte) and on Murray Grand’s “Too Old to Die Young.” The evening also included a hilarious takeoff on “Why Him?” (Alan Jay Lerner/Burton Lane), as it might be sung by Melania Trump, with special lyrics by Dawna Kaufmann, a writer for Saturday Night Live.
Valdivia set the tone for the duality of moods early, opening with “Don’t Tell Mama” (Kander & Ebb, from Cabaret) — during which her use of a blue boa drew wolf whistles from some in the audience — followed by the more sedate tones of ”Typically English” (Anthony Newley/Leslie Bricusse, from Stop the World I Want to Get Off).
