Marilyn Maye

By Request

The Music Instrument Museum (MIM) Theater, Phoenix, AZ, December 12, 2024

Reviewed by Lynn Timmons Edwards

Cabaret superstar Marilyn Maye returned to the MIM for a second time with her latest cabaret show By Request, which included the songs most requested by her audiences. Music director and superb pianist Tedd Firth was at her side, and it was a treat to see the “Grande Dame of Cabaret” on tour at 96 years young. She opened with a snappy up-tempo “The Song Is You” (Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein II). Her voice needed to warm up, and she pushed right into every note until each tone was pure and soaring. “It’s a Most Unusual Day” (Jimmy McHugh/Harold Adamson) included a verse I hadn’t heard, and then we were reminded to bring her “No Bad News” (Charlie Smalls & Luther Vandross, from The Wiz). Maye slipped like silk between her patter and songs, and the moments felt spontaneous. She was playful and clearly having fun with her musicians and the audience. I would wager that in her many decades of performing she has never fallen into doing the exact same show twice.

She included a Fats Waller medley that she had performed at Dizzy’s Club at Jazz at Lincoln Center that included “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter,” “Ain’t Misbehavin’” and “Honeysuckle Rose.” While she was on a medley roll, we were treated to three songs by Duke Ellington, “Do Nothing Til You Hear from Me” (lyric by Bob Russell), “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” (lyric by Bob Russell), and “Satin Doll” (written with Billy Strayhorn; lyric by Johnny Mercer) to which she added a little rhumba hip action. Those medleys segued perfectly into “Hallelujah, I Love Her (Him) So” (Ray Charles). Maye is at home in a piano crook, gracious with her musicians, and gave them starring musical interludes. Besides Firth, her excellent musicians were Chris Finet on bass and Paul Ringenbach on drums.

Andrew Walesch, MIM’s Artistic Director, mentioned to me how much he especially loved the next part of her cabaret, which was more subdued. She stood behind the mic stand and sang about the passage of love with a combination of “Lazy Afternoon” (John Latouche/Jerome Moross) and “Bye-Bye Country Boy” (Jack Segal/Blossom Dearie). She became ageless in that moment and followed with a medley of “Autumn in New York” (Vernon Duke), “Autumn Leaves” (Joseph Kosma/Mercer), and “When October Goes” (Mercer/Barry Manilow).

She threw in a little Christmas music (as the trees upstage were lit), grabbed her cheat sheet, and dedicated a Jimmy Webb medley of “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” and “Didn’t We” that she had promised Tom G., the concerts MIM sponsor, that she would learn. “Rich Man” (Terri Gibbs) showed off her comic skills, and then she performed her most requested song (which is my favorite too) “Guess Who I Saw Today” (Murray Grand and Elisse Boyde from New Faces of 1952), which garnered huge applause. She described her final two songs from two points of view: first, that of the lover in “Guess Who I Saw Today” with “Fifty Percent” (Alan and Marilyn Bergman/Billy Goldenberg from Ballroom) and next, that of the scorned wife in “Too Late Now.” (Alan Jay Lerner/Burton Lane). (Our editor, Cabaret Scenes editor, Frank Dain, devoted a paragraph to Maye’s brilliance on “Fifty Percent,” when he reviewed her April 2024 cabaret show at NYC’s 54 Below; you can read it here: Marilyn Maye – Cabaret Scenes.) Maye left the stage and returned twice to a standing ovation and thunderous applause. As always, her signature encores of James Taylor’s “The Secret o’ Life” followed by “Here’s to Life” (Artie Butler/Phyllis Molinary) brought the show to a close. She ended with a couple of kicks and got a big laugh when she quipped “I have to hold onto the piano now.”

After the show, Walesch brought Maye to the lobby on his arm show where she could not have been kinder and friendlier to me with nothing but praise for Cabaret Scenes. I considered it a privilege to be able to review her here in Arizona. Walesch promised that he plans to bring her back again, and it would be worth a trip to Phoenix to see her and the magnificent Music Instrument Museum.