Mary Catherine
Written in the Stars
Moonshine Room at Club Café, Boston, MA, October 6, 2024
Reviewed by John Amodeo
It’s a beautiful thing when a singer holds an entire audience in the palm of her hand as she shares different aspects of herself through story and song. When a singer is that connected to themselves and their material, one can’t help but lean in and smile. That is just what a rapt Moonshine Room audience did for a full hour when Mary Catherine held court with the Tom LaMark Quartet in her new show Written in the Stars.
Dressed in a hot-pink pant suit, black slingback pumps that sparkled almost as much as she did, and with her hair perfectly coifed, Mary Catherine was a sight to behold. With her warm-as-Irish-whiskey alto and her silky soprano, her songs were as well dressed as she was.
Mary Catherine has been a fixture in the Boston piano-bar/open-mic scene for years, delighting a room full of regulars at the Club Café’s Napoleon Room with a novelty song here and a ballad there. She’s only done a handful of cabaret shows, but you would never know it given the poise, confidence, and easy humor she displayed during her show.
Let’s start with the set list. Peppered throughout the show were some familiar chestnuts—A Fine Romance,” “I Got Rhythm,” and “Every Time We Say Goodbye,”—but Mary Catherine gave them different colors to make them her own. A little unsteady at first on her opener “A Fine Romance,” she managed to settle into it partway through, just in time to throw in an exasperated eye roll during the line “and all morals” that perfectly tickled our funny bones and would have received a wink and a nod of approval from lyricist Dorothy Fields. By the final verse, she had picked up the pace and brought it home in full swing. Not only did she have rhythm in that Gershwin tune, but with Tom LaMark’s deft arrangements she sang “I Got Rhythm” in a bouncy new tempo that had us listening to the song anew. “Every Time We Say Goodbye” was her aptly chosen closer; it was sung straight as written with sweet sincerity, and yet it was still fresh because she sang it directly to the audience instead of to an unseen romantic partner.
The rest of the set list was a treasure trove of less familiar, rarely sung, or downright unknown gems. She delivered a sultry “East of the Sun and West of the Moon,” a poignant samba-paced “Quiet Nights,” and an exquisite pairing of “Written in the Stars” and “Dream Dancing” that oscillated between seductive and romantic. A standout among the unfamiliar songs was the obscure Jerome Kern/Dorothy fields jewel, “Remind Me,” which reminded me how blessed we are to have the Great American Songbook. Mary Catherine has a way with Fields’ romantic lyrics; she starts out unassumingly, and in the final line she aims an arrow straight for the heart and scores a bullseye.
If you thought this show was all weepy ballads, think again. Mary Catherine knows how to show an audience a good time, and she livened things up with her often hilarious self-deprecating patter and her equally entertaining up-tempo numbers. She was fierce and on fire in a hard driving “Get Out of Town” that fairly sizzled. Out of nowhere, she hit us broadside with Karrin Allyson’s R&B rib-tickler “Sweet Home Cookin’ Man” that oozed with culinary innuendo and was served with a Cheshire grin. She turned the room into a party in her encore with a high-octane “You Can’t Hurry Love,” which she and LaMark gave the full 1960s treatment, replete with horn backup.
Let’s talk about the Tom LaMark Quartet. LaMark is one of the most sought-after musical directors, arrangers, and piano accompanists in Boston. He filled this show with one delicious arrangement after another: he sped up the tempo on one song for each subsequent verse until the final 16 bars were sung at a breathless double time and changed other one from ballad to swing mid-song. He skillfully wove “Written in the Stars” and “Dream Dancing” into a beautiful braid. He also knows how to pick his band musicians. Dave Landoni was solid with his sitting acoustic bass; George Darrah on drums kept every song grounded, and he added colorful flourishes throughout; Arnie Krakowski was a constant delight on sax—sultry in “Quiet Nights” and powerful on “I Got Rhythm” and impersonated a trumpet and trombone on “You’ Can’t Hurry Love.”
That latter number was intended to be Mary Catherine’s encore, but the standing and cheering audience wouldn’t let her go. For her unplanned second encore, with just LaMark’s quiet piano accompaniment, Mary Catherine, an Irish lass to the core, delivered a transcendent “How Are Things in Glocca Morra” that melted every heart and left a collective gulp in our throats. With this show, deftly directed by Tony Award-winning Broadway leading lady Faith Prince and co-written by Rod Ferguson, Mary Catherine established herself as one of the top cabaret performers in Boston. Watch for her next show.
