Margo Brown and Lisa Dellarossa: You’re Nothing Without Me

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Margo Brown and Lisa Dellarossa

You’re Nothing Without Me

Don’t Tell Mama, NYC, April 22, 2022

Reviewed by Bart Greenberg

Margo Brown & Lisa Dellarossa

Margo Brown and Lisa Dellarossa’s new show You’re Nothing Without Me (the title number is repeated about as often as it was in the musical City of Angels) is a prime example of what happens when a bad concept happens to good performers. Both singers have fine voices and they were supported by the cabaret royalty of Jeff Harnar as director and John M. Cook as music director, but the program refused to gel around the unlikely idea that there was an antagonistic relationship between the two divas. This began with the first number, “Let’s Start Tomorrow Tonight,” where the artists quibbled over which word to emphasize in the title—wouldn’t that have been worked out in rehearsal?—which did led to an amusing arrangement that incorporated references to a variety of theater songs that featured the words “tomorrow” and “tonight”—a cute idea, better without the acid.

A reference to their being an “odd couple” led to a huge medley of television theme songs about friendship: “Thank You for Being My Friend,” “Love Is All Around,” and “Bonanza” among others. This was delightful, having the right mix of humor and sentiment; it allowed for some very nice harmonizing on the Mary Tyler Moore Show theme and allowed Cook to show off his pleasant voice as well.

Both performers got some solo spots that showed them to advantage. Dellarossa showed a nice impish comic flair with Tom Lehrer’s “I Got It from Agnes” and some sweetness in a love song to a dog, “Kramer’s Song,” written by Bernadette Peters. Brown scored big with a moving medley of “Old Friends” and “Not While I’m Around,” delivered with a sweet warmth. Back together, the duo offered a powerful mix of “Me and My Shadow” and “I Am My Own Best Friend,” a truly brilliant mix of songs.

There was so much that was delightful in this show, but it never soared. Removing the staged acrimony would go a long way to helping things get off the runway.

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 & Nobel, 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."