Maria Corsaro
Love… It’s Complicated
Don’t Tell Mama, NYC, November 10, 2018
Reviewed by Bart Greenberg for Cabaret Scenes
https://www.marijuanaskiesdispensary.com/wp-content/languages/new/flagyl.htmljpg” alt=”” width=”212″ height=”212″ /> Maria Corsaro
Making her solo cabaret debut, Maria Corsaro offered up her slightly smoky voice, her slightly jaded view of love, and her solid sense of humor. The latter was especially well served with her delivery of “Every Time a Friend Succeeds” (Amanda Green) and “Love Is a Bore” (Sammy Cahn/Jimmy Van Heusen). She also showed a more sensitive side, as when she serenaded photographs of her dogs, sweetly and without a dot of irony, with “Times Like This” (Lynn Ahrens/Stephen Flaherty)
Music arranger John Cook, who also served as MD and pianist, devised some interesting approaches to well-known songs, transforming “Where Is Love?” into a jazz waltz and contrasting it with a musically jagged version of “You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught.” Corsaro’s delivery of “That’s Life” was much slower than the way it’s usually presented, emphasizing the love for experiences underlying the lyrics.
The flaw in the show is that Corsaro cannot quite decide whether she is a jazz vocalist or a cabaret chanteuse. Her style is really more suited to the latter, in which she showed off her considerable range with “Never” (Betty Comden & Adolph Green/Cy Coleman), but she’s not quite loose enough for some of her jazz ventures.
Cook was joined by Mark Wade on bass and Steve Smyth on trumpet. Former cabaret co-star Linda Kahn joined Corsaro for one number, “River Deep, Mountain High” (Jeff Barry & Ellie Greenwich). The afternoon was directed with a light touch by Kenneth Gartman.
