Phillip Officer: You Fascinate Me So: Phillip Officer Salutes Mabel Mercer

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Phillip Officer

You Fascinate Me So: Phillip Officer Salutes Mabel Mercer

Birdland Theater, NYC, September 24, 2024

Reviewed by Jacqueline Parker

Phillip Officer

Mabel Mercer is one of those names that hovers over the cabaret world like an attentive angel. She’s been gone for 40 years, but her influence is still felt keenly by devotees of the cabaret art form. But she’s a fortunate angel indeed, because she has Phillip Officer to help keep her legacy alive.

My knowledge of Mercer was not extensive, which made the evening spent in the company of Officer so rewarding. He was not unfamiliar to me, so it was fun trying to figure out where he began and Mercer left off. He opened with Alec Wilder’s “While We’re Young,” which segued nicely into Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “Hello, Young Lovers.” Officer gave us enough background on Mercer to make us want to understand why she was so revered by people like Frank Sinatra, Cole Porter, Tony Bennett, and Lena Horne. Throughout the evening, Officer illustrated how a primary focus on lyrics could truly enrich the cabaret experience.

Officer has a talent that can’t be taught, so it’s always a welcome occasion to have a chance to see and hear him work his magic. The only way to explain this gift is that he is able to coax into the spotlight a nuance that’s been hiding behind a lyric. The effect is stunning, like biting into an apple and discovering that it’s really a peach. Many songs are in effect short stories; the words tell the tale while the music make them easy to digest. An example was Officer’s rendition of “I’m Glad I’m Not Young Anymore” by Lerner & Loewe. When you hear what he does with it, you might recall that it is usually done is a sing-song manner that works against its theme.

For most of the performance Phillip was seated, just as Mabel used to be. His being so stationary made every facial and body gesture all the more emphatic. With his four-piece orchestra backing him up (Jonathan Michel on bass, Molly Rose on violin, Kevin Kuhn on guitar, and Mark Hartman on piano), the audience couldn’t have hoped for more.

Some people sing pretty songs, other make songs sound pretty. Singers bring their own truth to what they do. Officer’s style is more elevated. He has always had the ability to make one feel that he’s singing a particular song only to you, because he senses that you need to really understand it in a way that is relevant to you at that moment. That is magic of Phillip Officer.

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Jacqueline Parker

Like Ethel Merman, lifelong New Yorker Jacqueline Parker began her career as a stenographer. She spent more than two decades at the city's premier public agency, progressing through positions of increased responsibility after earning her BA in English from New York University (3.5 GPA/Dean’s List). She won national awards for her work in public relations and communication and had the privilege of working in the House of Commons for Stephen Ross, later Lord Ross of Newport. In the second half of her career, Jacqueline brought her innate organizational skills and creative talents to a variety of positions. While distinguishing herself in executive search, she also gave her talents to publishing, politics, writing, radio broadcasting and Delmonico's Restaurant. Most recently, she hosted Anything Goes! a radio show that paid homage to Cole Porter and by extension the world of Broadway musicals and the Great American Songbook. Other features of the show were New York living, classical music, books, restaurants, architecture and politics. This show highlighted the current Broadway scene, both in New York and around the country through performances and interviews with luminaries including Len Cariou, Charles Strouse, Laura Osnes, Steve Ross and Joan Copeland. Her pandemic project was immersion into the life, times and work of Alfred Hitchcock, about whom she has written a soon-to-be-published article. Jacqueline has been involved in a myriad of charitable causes, most notably the Walt Frazier Youth Foundation, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Sisters of Life, York Theatre, and the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival. She is a proud Founder of Hidden Water. Her greatest accomplishment is the parenting of her son, a lawyer specializing in mediation. She has many pretend grandchildren, nieces and nephews, on whom she dotes shamelessly, as well as a large circle of friends to whom she is devoted. Her interests in addition to theater and cabaret are cooking, entertaining, reading, and spending time on Queen Mary 2.

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