Carmen Cusack
Feinstein’s/54 Below, February 13, 2019
Reviewed by Chris Struck for Cabaret Scenes
Carmen Cusack put on an excellent variant of a classic cabaret show. By shifting between her Broadway career and songs from the different eras of her youth, she created an interesting variety to her set list. Furthermore, her choice of eclectic ‘80’s and ‘90’s songs happened to resonate strongly with her adoring fans. Besides nailing it by finding unique songs to bring to a cabaret show, she brought her own powerhouse vocals along with those of the great guest stars who performed with her—particularly Ben Davis and Paul Alexander Nolan.
Although she’s a career performer, Cusack seems to have burst, and deservedly so, into the limelight following her acclaimed performance in Broadway’s Bright Star. For anyone who had not seen the show, she gave a taste of it with her terrific performance of “Way Back in the Day” (Edie Brickell), which warmed our hearts.
The song’s beautiful, nostalgic lyrics—“We’d sing and we’d sway to every song together/way back in the day”—captured our attention; it was one part romantic and one part willful woman. Most of her songs were solos, such as “Son of a Preacher Man” (John Hurley/Ronnie Wilkens) or “Don’t Make Me Over” (Burt Bacharach/Hal David).
To complement her high-powered vocals, a pair of excellent singers joined her on stage.
When Nolan began his duet with Cusack of “Shallow” (Andrew Wyatt/Anthony Rossomando/Mark Ronson/Stefani Germanotta), a crowd member’s expletive of “Oh f*ck” stopped the show. It was so well-timed, it seemed planned. Nolan’s line, “Tell me something girl,” had just the right ring to it, and his easy guitar helped cement a powerful emotional performance. Even more stunning was Cusack’s pair of duets with Davis. Both songs were good in themselves, but their duet performance of “How Do You Keep the Music Playing?” (Michel Legrand/Alan and Marilyn Bergman) was a tour de force. The chemistry was palpable, the song classy, and the mood, suddenly romantic. Davis and Cusack had an ease on stage that was bound to get people talking about how well their sounds complemented each other.
Michael Hicks was pianist/music director, Joe Jung was on guitar, Daniel Ocanto was on drums, and Jason DiMatteo was on bass. I’m looking forward to seeing Cusack again. She’s pretty amazing at what she does.
