Sydney Stephan
Places
The Green Room 42, NYC, January 29, 2023
Reviewed by Bart Greenberg
Photo: Don Polo Photography
Sometimes a cabaret show can have a talented star, some very good back-up folks, a nice mix of songs, and fine musical support and yet still not come together. The answer is—it needed a director. That extra pair of eyes would have been so helpful in pulling everything together. While The Green Room 42 stage is not the smallest in the city, but four musicians and three back-up singers (each dressed for a different show), plus Sydney Stephan as the featured performer, made for a crowded stage and a lot of distracting comings and goings. Varied material is always welcome, but there seemed to be no connection between the songs.
The evening was entitled Places, and Stephan explained that it was a reference to both the many places she has visited while working on cruise ships and to the announcement in the theater to be in position for the start of a production. The second reference had almost no impact on the evening, and only a few of the moments tied in with the first, mostly the three songs Stephan had written—“Where Will I Be,” “Silver Palace,” and “Alaska”—all excellent compositions that suggest she might have an exciting future career as a songwriter. The last work contained the expressive lyrics that most tied in with the first definition: “I’ve been to beautiful places, and I’ve met countless faces.” The only other location suggested during the evening was “Easy Street,” given a raucously fun rendition by our diva and one of her back-up singers, Patrick Ryan Castle.
Stephan has a strong voice; in fact, she has two distinct voices. Curiously she chose to devote the first half of her show to her rather strident belt and the second half to her sweet soprano. A Kander & Ebb medley (“All That Jazz,” “Cabaret,” and “And the World Goes ’Round”) was totally belted, made it meaningless. “I Kissed a Girl” and “Cruella DeVil” (sung with her other back-up singers Mary Nikols and Stephanie Ainsworth), were also all high-energy and brassy, which deflated the humor and discovery in these numbers, although the musical arrangement was great fun. Then the show shifted as Stephan sat at the piano and delivered a delicate and sweet “Close to You” that brought out all the romance of the story line. Later on, she blended her two voices quite successfully on the standard “Secret Love.” More of that would have been most appreciated.
Throughout the evening her patter was relaxed and personable, without any rambling. In addition to her singers, she had fine musical support from music director/pianist Mason Griffin, bassist Joe Wallace, drummer AJ Kostromina, and guitarist Will Shishmanian. If only there had been a director’s name among the credits.
