Judi Mark
Merely Marvelous: The Songs of Gwen Verdon
Don’t Tell Mama, NYC, November 10, 2022
Reviewed by Bart Greenberg
Photo: Michael Ian
Gwen Verdon seems to be one of the most unlikely Broadway personalities on which to build a cabaret tribute. She’s a legend indeed, but she’s better known for her unique dance style and expertise (and her long relationship with Bob Fosse) than her slightly raspy singing. But Judi Mark made a convincing argument in her new cabaret show Merely Marvelous: The Songs of Gwen Verdon for revisiting the wonderful songs that Verdon either introduced or chose to perform. Given that she has a hint of the same vocal tics that made the late star so endearing, it is difficult to imagine a better performer than Mark to illustrate the icon’s legacy as a vocalist. Being a dancer herself, she found some other parallels between their two lives, which made her connection to the red-headed star seem deeply personal.
Kicking off the show in the audience with a spirited “I’m a Brass Band” and quickly following that up with “You Should See Yourself” as a serenade to Verdon’s album covers (with appropriately revised lyrics by director Jeff Harnar), she quickly won the audience over to her side. A great pairing of “Find Me a Primitive Man” and “Whatever Lola Wants” showed that a lot of imagination and thought went into the creation of this show. A latter song cycle of “Why Can’t I?,” “Two Lost Souls” (in duet with bassist Ritt Henn), “Me and My Baby” (the slow soft version before the song was jazzed up for Liza Minnelli), “If That Was Love,” and “Where Am I Going?” became a story in itself, performed with perfect on-target emotion by Mark.
It may have been first-night nerves that made her seem
uncomfortable with some of her patter. That may also explain her somewhat rigid
approach to some of the stand-alone comedy numbers, such as “The Saga of Jenny,”
where her strict attention to meter interfered with her having fun with the
lyrics. But given something to act, she became an exciting actress.
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She was Charity Hope Valentine delivering a bitter “Charity’s Soliloquy” and a desperate “There’s Gotta Be Something Better Than This.” She was a cynical but vulnerable Roxie Hart in three numbers (“Funny Honey,” “Roxie,” and “Nowadays”), each of which disclosed aspects of her personality.
Harnar guided the show with an almost invisible hand, the finest thing that can be said about cabaret direction. Fine support was provided by music director Ian Herman and Henn. But, quite naturally, Mark dominated the evening with her singing, with her effortless dancing despite the very limited space available (she even moved a mic stand was done with a dancer’s grace), and especially her dramatic exploration of lyrics. Her torching of “Ain’t Misbehavin’” (recalling Verdon’s relationship with Fosse) with her back bending while seated on a stool, was both elegant and expressive as only a dancer can physically be. This was just one of the merely marvelous moments in the show.
