Ann Hampton Callaway

Fever: The Peggy Lee Century

Feinstein’s/54 Below, NYC, May 19, 2022

Reviewed by Ron Forman

Ann Hampton Callaway is truly a diva in the best sense of the word. In her new show celebrating the life and music of Peggy Lee at Feinstein’s/54 Below, she was at the very top of her form. Callaway has great sound and style and exudes great confidence on stage. She got a big laugh by saying “Frank Sinatra was the male Peggy Lee.” Lee had a truly remarkable career as a big-band vocalist and as a recording and a cabaret star, a songwriter, and an Oscar-nominated movie star. Callaway touched on all of these aspects of Lee’s by interspersing interesting and often funny anecdotes between her musical numbers so that by the end of the show, I understood her Sinatra comment. She was backed by a marvelous jazz trio—Ted Rosenthal (piano), Martin Wind (bass), and Tim Horner (drums)—all of whom performed solos that enhanced Calloway’s performance.

Callaway opened with a very lively “I Love Being Here with You,” one of the many songs written by Lee she would perform. She followed by talking about the harshness of Lee’s early life in North Dakota leading up to her joining Benny Goodman’s band. Callaway performed Lee’s first hit with Goodman, “Why Don’t You Do Right?,” with a Latin beat. Her very sensuous performance of “Fever” included additional new lyrics about Lee and her first husband (and Lee’s one true love), guitarist Dave Barbour. After talking about Lee’s break-up with Barbour, Callaway performed a soft and very warm version of “The Folks That Live on the Hill,” followed by a super-fast performance of “Just One of Those Things” that displayed her amazing ability to skat and that featured a dazzling piano solo by Rosenthal.

Lee wrote the songs and provided some of the voices for the animated film Lady and the Tramp and Callaway followed her performance of “He’s a Tramp” with the story of how Lee sued Walt Disney for appropriate remuneration and won. She was one of the first vocalists to record a theme album, Black Coffee, and Callaway powerfully belted the title song.She had the audience join in by singing along with “I’m a Woman.” (She even had me singing the phrase “I’m a Woman.”) After telling about Barbour’s passing just as he and Lee were ready to reunite, Callaway sang a haunting and very dramatic “Johnny Guitar,” the title song Lee had written for that great Western film noir. Changing the mood, she offered a very cheerful “It’s a Good Day.” Her next-to-closing number, “Is That All There Is?” received an ultra-dramatic performance, second only to Lee’s original recording. Callaway even had the audience chant “Is That All There Is?” every time the line came up in the song’s lyric.