Rian Keating
Time Stamps: Life Fragments in Story and Song
Don’t Tell Mama, NYC, January 19, 2022
Reviewed by Bart Greenberg
A man walked into a memoir-writing class and walked out with a highly unique cabaret show. Rian Keating’s Time Stamps: Life Fragments in Story and Song is based on a series of assignments he completed for this course of study. The emphasis is in fact more on the stories than on the songs; the latter are clearly chosen to highlight and decorate the, by turn, moving and amusing tales he has to spin, ranging from a “Mrs. Robinson” moment with the Methodist reverend’s wife to a long search for appropriate New York housing to a terrifying “fag bashing.”
Those who saw Keating’s first show, In This Traveling Heart, know what a fine writer he is. The most tragic moments are leavened with humor, and the funniest points have a bit of melancholy in them. Most remarkable is his underlying compassion for all; it would be so easy to simply mock some of his encounters, such as the series of bizarre, aggressive, and avaricious potential roommates and landlords, but he finds the humanity in them.
On the musical side, a medley of “Who Knows Where the Time Goes” (Sandy Denny) and “There Is a Time” (Charles Aznavour/Gene Lewis), serves as an atmospheric launching pad for the evening. Throughout, music director Woody Reagan works wonders with creating arrangements that complement the star’s style and support his occasional uncertain vocals. One of the recurring themes of the evening is Keating’s passion for the work of Jacques Brel, which led to his first public performance in a piano bar on the West Side of Manhattan—yep, right at Don’t Tell Mama. Sadly, it was not a success. But it does allow for our host to offer a very fine “Old Folks” as well as the hysterical “Thank You Jacques Brel” (Patrick Cook). Like Keating’s writing, it both satirizes and embraces the musical eccentricities of the famed composer.
Under the subtle and steady direction of Tanya Moberly, Keating beautifully delivered his lengthy monologues without relying on a printed script and with barely a hesitation.
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Impressive in itself, the flow of images and ideas he projects touch the heart of every viewer.
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We share his lost-in-the-city fear and his jubilance when love comes into the story, celebrated in a medley of “This Can’t Be Love” and “If I Were a Bell.” And the poignant, perfect ending of “Time Flies” (Jimmy Webb/Ray Bradbury) sent us out hoping that this would prove to be the second segment in at the very least a trilogy.
