Katie Birtill
So in Love
Pizza Express Live at Holborn, London, U.K., February 3, 2019
Reviewed by Thanasis Kalantzis for Cabaret Scenes
Cabaret shows about love go, well, for a song. Just flip through any venue listing in London town and you will find at least three or four of those running simultaneously. So, when you hear about yet another one, you can’t help but thinking, “Oh my, yet another one.” Still, every so often, an artist comes along who can throw a whole new, bright light on the primordial feeling and its ups and downs and dismiss one’s reservations as unfounded and rigid. It’s the artist and her artistic choices that can re-flame our interest and rejuvenate our perspective on this age-old theme.
So in Love is one of those shows and Katie Birtill (singer and West End actress, whose album Baby, Dream Your Dream reached number one in the iTunes jazz charts) is one of those artists. During her two-hour-long gig at PizzaExpress Live at Holborn, she explored love and all its many facets with all the confidence and strength that her amazingly lyrical voice would allow her. With superb backing by her four-member band, she celebrated two of her greatest loves—musical theater and jazz—in front of a house filled to the rafters with ecstatic fans.
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With thoroughly re-invented renditions of classics that have nurtured generations, she embarked on a voyage to define anew the archetypal mover, Eros, the One who was born first out of the chaos. And what better salute to Him, and the ones He protects, than her opening number “Hello, Young Lovers” from the The King and I—fast and fearless, a wonderful jazzed up rendition that, indeed, blew me away.
There were more surprises to come, the next being a bossa nova take on “If I Were a Bell” from Guys and Dolls that was delivered with some expertly handled scat and a piano to die for.
Her “The Man I Love” from Lady, Be Good was real and down to earth, yet it oozed, as it should, sentimentality, and the trombone solo deserved all the applause it got.
Love is nice and dandy, but let’s “stay who we are” she encouraged us through Sondheim’s “Marry Me a Little,” about not losing oneself into love’s vortex. With her “You Matter to Me” from Waitress (finally in London), she presented us with the psychological blueprint of people who may not have yet said the “L” word but they are heading, carefully, that way.
In love, everything has to happen at the right (or wrong, some would say) time and there are no better songs to convey these thoughts, and show off the songstress’ full vocal potential, than “Goodbye Until Tomorrow” and “The Next Ten Minutes” both from Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years. She finished her first set with the great fun and full of naive and adorable(?
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) sexism “Marry the Man Today” from Guys and Dolls.
She stormed through her second set with “But Not for Me” (George and Ira Gershwins), another furious rendition laced with spot-on solos from her band; then she beautifully displayed her strong soprano on Cole Porter’s in-your-face “So in Love.
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There’s the other side of the coin: “men are stupid, men are vain, love is a humiliating business.” Yes, I’m talking about “Every Day a Little Death” from A Little Night Music. She raised the mood with the seemingly impossible to deliver “If You Hadn’t but You Did” from Two on the Aisle, but it was the duet with her guest, Laura Tebbutt (currently appearing in School of Rock), that gave us a stupendous rendition of “What About Love?” from The Color Purple, a song about trust, about being on the same page with the one, whether it’s a man or a woman.
For her last song she literally brought the house down with another jazzed-up version of “On the Street Where You Live” that climaxed naturally—forget about the amazing trombone. She left us with a slow, sweet and mellow “Some Enchanted Evening” from South Pacific that went straight into our hearts.
I repeat. We have all heard the same songs many times before by artists who have excelled in the genre, but this artist’s interpretations made them feel real, fresh, and even untouched.
Birtill has the gift as a singer, no one in her presence can dispute that, but it was her vivacious personality that made the difference. This woman has thought through about her choices and what each one of them signifies, which is why she was able to convey with clarity and eloquence the meaning of each song to her audience (even if many times I thought she should steer clear from the redundant and verbally cumbersome “this next song is about…”).
Ladies and gentlemen, in the USA and beyond, meet the U.K.’s Katie Birtill. This is how it’s done!
The artist was superbly supported by her four-piece band: John Cervantes on piano, Simon Read on bass, Steve Taylor on drums, and Chris Fry on trombone.
