Susan Derry: Ingénue You When, Again

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Susan Derry

Ingénue You When, Again

The Green Room 42, NYC, April 9, 2023

Reviewed by Bart Greenberg

Susan Derry

Susan Derry broke all the rules at The Green Room 42 in her cleverly named show Ingénue You When, Again (a salute to the youthful musical theater roles she has played in the past), and she got away with it—gloriously. She started the evening with a dark ballad (“I Don’t Want to Know”), which led smoothly and logically to the upbeat “The Best of Times.” What followed was a program that had a personal mix of sadness (a marriage gone wrong) and positivity, with the latter dominating. Later on, a charmingly youthful “It Might as Well Be Spring” was paired with an achingly sophisticated “Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most.” Still later, with  profound bittersweetness, Rodgers and Hart’s “Manhattan” was mashed up with “You Can Have Manhattan” (Sara Bareilles). The despair of the medley was redeemed by the witty joy of “Hurry! It’s Lovely Up Here,” which followed. Not only was this emotionally rewarding, it made for very smart cabaret.

The splendid and constantly surprising musical arrangements were mostly by music director Howard Breitbart; “tasteful” and “witty” are some other words that come to mind. One exception to Breitbart’s work was conceived and executed by Saadi Zain, who supplied fine bass work throughout. Zain and Derry had met some years before when Derry had one of her first roles as The Girl in The Fantasticks and he was in the pit. Reunited with her for this show, he created a beautiful and highly dramatic version of “So in Love” for only voice and bass. It was a major highlight of the evening. Another highlight came when her friend Michael Buchanan joined her for a huge medley of songs from shows presented in the Encore series (she is a veteran of 14 of them) that was filled with sheer energy and delight. He has an outstanding tenor and a winning personality.

Still, it was Derry who effortlessly dominated the show. Whether she sang “Think of Me” in German (she starred in The Phantom of the Opera in Germany for a number of years) or was scintillating with “You Fascinate Me So” (dedicated it to her silver-fox husband who was in adoring attendance), she made it completely her show. She might have moved away from the mic stand a bit to vary the stage picture, but that’s a minor issue. Her innate confidence allowed the audience to relax and to know that everything was going to be very good. She has graduated from being an ingénue, and now is unquestionably a star.

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."