Meg Flather and Lisa Viggiano: #realjoy

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Meg Flather and Lisa Viggiano

#realjoy

Don’t Tell Mama, NYC, December 30, 2018

Reviewed by Bart Greenberg for Cabaret Scenes

Lisa Viggiano (L) & Meg Flather

Meg Flather, Lisa Viggiano, and music director Tracy Stark united to offer a delightful holiday show with an emphasis on the joy of the season. Under the skillful direction of Lennie Watts, the three ladies demonstrated a lovely chemistry as they moved through a well-chosen list of songs, both well-known and newly minted, that covered a wide range of moods and emotions. Both singers brought a marvelous specificity to their lyrics, shining new meanings on old songs such as Flather’s version of “My Favorite Things,” which featured some fresh phrasing that made the words seem very personal and full of discovery.

Adding to the freshness of the show was the curious and surprising mix of one song with another, such as “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” and “Hard Candy Christmas” or “Christmas Time Is Here” and “Stop Time,” which created new short stories for the audience to explore. Also adding a touch of uniqueness to the show were songs by two of the participants, Flather’s “Like a Sunday” and “Powder Blue” (written with Vicki Genfan), and Stark’s “Perfect Christmas”; about the latter saying she was “following in the tradition of Jews who write Christmas carols.”

Individual shining moments included Viggiano’s comic highlight, “A Miracle for Christmas” (Ron Kaehler and David Friedman) about the more medicinal way of getting through the season, and Flather’s medley of songs from Mame, a moment of pure joy leading into an audience sing-along of “We Need a Little Christmas.” But then the entire evening was joy unrestrained.

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Bart Greenberg

Bart Greenberg first discovered cabaret a few weeks after arriving in New York City by seeing Julie Wilson and William Roy performing Stephen Sondheim and Cole Porter outdoors at Rockefeller Center. It was instant love for both Ms. Wilson and the art form. Some years later, he was given the opportunity to create his own series of cabaret shows while working at Tower Records. "Any Wednesday" was born, a weekly half-hour performance by a singer promoting a new CD release. Ann Hampton Callaway launched the series. When Tower shut down, Bart was lucky to move the program across the street to Barnes & Noble, where it thrived under the generous support of the company. The series received both The MAC Board of Directors Award and The Bistro Award. Some of the performers who took part in "Any Wednesday" include Barbara Fasano and Eric Comstock, Tony Desare, Andrea Marcovicci, Carole Bufford, the Karens, Akers, Mason and Oberlin, and Julie Wilson. Privately, Greenberg is happily married to writer/photographer Mark Wallis, who as a performance artist in his native England gathered a major following as "I Am Cereal Killer."