Paula Stoff Dean

It’s About the Journey

The Monocle, St. Louis, MO, August 25, 2018

Reviewed by Steve Callahan for Cabaret Scenes

I first saw Paula Stoff perform years ago in a revue presented by St. Louis’ Non-Prophet Theatre. They had some fine local talent who were performing very well indeed. But when Stoff stepped into the spotlight and sang, I swallowed my gum! What in the world was this Broadway talent doing with this tiny company in St. Louis?

Since then, I’ve seen her in a number of fine musical theater performances—including a stunning turn as Sally Bowles in Cabaret—and four years ago she dipped a toe into non-musical theater. Now, as Paula Stoff Dean, she appears in her cabaret debut. I can only say, “It’s about time!!”

She appeared at The Monocle, a perfect little cabaret venue in the Grove neighborhood. Dean has a very special, sexy, vivacious, comic gift, and that came across from the very start. She glided on stage in a long, very sexy, champagne-colored evening gown. Yet, there was the sense that she doesn’t really take that sexiness seriously.

At first, as she greeted the audience, she showed just a bit of nervousness, which is actually rather endearing in one so deeply talented as she. Then the songs began.

There was a lovely variety—old familiars, new surprises, sad songs, and funny songs. She started off with “I Don’t Want to Show Off” and “As We Stumble Along” from The Drowsy Chaperone—both charmingly done.

The program was framed around the singer’s life story. I have a long quarrel with the cabaret folks about this. We don’t really come to hear about the singer, but to hear (and hear about) the songs.
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Still, Dean gracefully guided us along her history: the dear and funny and frustrating things about raising kids; true love, and divorce; really true love, and divorce.

In a terrific rendition of “Bring On the Men” (Jekyll and Hyde) she brought the evening into a boisterous R-rating. In “Letter to Me” she gave very poignant advice to her younger self.
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For me, the very high point of the evening was “Maybe This Time” (Cabaret); it was powerful and dramatic and a bit sentimental. She nailed it!

She told us that when she was growing up her father was always singing songs to her. Her mom and dad were in the audience and, in a really sweet turn, she invited him up on stage to share “Some Enchanted Evening” with her. He’s still got the chops!

In the final portion of the evening she focused on her optimistic self, which I really believe, truly governs her life. She sang a great “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive” and a charming “Good Morning” from 1939’s Babes in Arms.

The always-excellent Carol Schmidt accompanied beautifully.

I would have liked a few more beloved old standards, and one or two soft, intimate numbers featuring that warm spot just below the center of her range, but, what the heck, you can’t do everything in 90 minutes. And in such a small venue, with a voice as big as Dean’s, one doesn’t really need all that amplification.