Parker Nolen
Not Exactly Paris
The Cabaret at Germano’s, Baltimore MD, June 16, 2019
Reviewed by Michael Miyazaki for Cabaret Scenes
In Not Exactly Paris, Parker Nolen offers a meditation on the challenges of that most crucial human activity—the search for love. The show started with They’re Playing Our Song’s “Fallin’“—the classic, hopeful anthem of the unconnected. Nolen then presented the search for love in statistical terms, before launching into a sprightly version of Peter Cincotti’s “Are You the One.”
The bulk of the show consisted of relationship anecdotes illustrated in song. Highlights included Nolen’s discovery of a date’s criminal underworld ties in a “Viva Las Vegas” sequence and the story of an ex who broke up with him but still wanted to be taken on a long-planned trip aboard the Queen Mary, as a lead-in to a jazzy rendition of “The Gentleman Is a Dope.
” He offered a reading of Avenue Q’s “There’s a Fine, Fine Line” with an interesting arc that morphed from confusion to anger. A “Fever”-esque vamp led into a sultry version of the Blondie classic, “Call Me”; this version made one hear new things in the song, although the lyric “cover up love’s alibi” remains enigmatic.
The most touching moments of the show came in an anecdote about working with a dating coach (leading into “The Lies of Handsome Men”) and in an explanation about saving his first visit to Paris for someone he truly loved and being consistently thwarted, leading into “Not Exactly Paris.
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” Nolen closed the show saying his experiences had not made him a cynic, rather “an optimist with experience”, and hecompleted the They’re Playing Our Song circle with “I Still Believe in Love.”
Nolen is a genial presence with a lilting baritone, and he looked quite spiffy in a green plaid dinner jacket. Music director Jeff Hamlin and bassist Topher Dunne played a lively opening medley of the songs in the show and provided solid support throughout.
