Katherine Riddle: Tell Me a Story

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Katherine Riddle

Tell Me a Story
The Duplex, NYC, December 14, 2019
Reviewed by Bart Greenberg

Katherine Riddle

Like many of Broadway’s lyric sopranos, from Barbara Cook to Kelli O’Hara, Katherine Riddle is a natural character actress. She seems drawn to songs that convey stories and personalities. Like her predecessors, the young performer offers a nicely controlled vocal line with a sparkling tone. And like them she possesses an intelligence that backs up her investigation of the material she delivers. She even demonstrates a quirky sense of humor with a love for slightly bawdy and quite silly “olde” English jokes, which she shared with the audience with a knowing wink.

She made some interesting choices in her songlist, ranging from soprano standards (“Meadowlark”) to obscure (“Toll” by Jeff Blumentrantz), a comical complaint of a lovelorn girl. Some of the oft-performed numbers (“Stars and the Moon,” “What More Do I Need”) were made fresh by her approach to them. She often showed a wry sense of humor finding the wit in the lyrics. The show also included some interesting pairings of songs to create extended stories: “The Physician” going into “A Trip to the Library” illustrates a frustrated romantic discovering love in an unlikely place.

Another moment that showed her intelligence was her understanding the devastated reaction of her audience to her delivery of “I’ll Be Here” from Ordinary Days; she brightened things by quipping “I promise the next one’s funny!” And funny it was—a brilliantly judged “Mister Right” from Love Life that had earned her a Mark Blitzstein Award.

She received excellent support throughout from her music director TC Kincer, who was capable of capturing the shifting moods of the program. Charming Scott Harrison joined Riddle for a clever delivery of Stephen Sondheim’s “Barcelona.”

The star’s inexperience in creating a cabaret show was exposed in the somewhat formless nature of the overall show. There were wonderful moments throughout, but they didn’t all connect.

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Perhaps with her next show she’ll choose to work with a strong director to help her develop her impressive talent and create a full evening.
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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."