Karen Oberlin
Secret Love: A Centennial Celebration of Doris Day
Don’t Tell Mama, NYC, November 14, 2022
Reviewed by Bart Greenberg
Karen Oberlin and Doris Day, the object of her affection in her program Secret Love: A Centennial Celebration of Doris Day, have a great deal in common: an optimistic and positive personality, the blonde attractiveness, and most of all a clear and uncomplicated approach to a song. Like the singer and movie icon, Oberlin has surprising depths when it comes to the darker aspects of her material, all of it drawn from the Day songbook. With fine support from her music director Jon Weber, she explored a wide range subject matter and a wide range of emotions all while remaining true to the spirit of her inspiration.
Of course, some of Day’s biggest hits were included in the program—“It’s Magic,” “Sentimental Journey,” and “Put ’Em in a Box, Tie ’Em with a Ribbon”—among others. The song she hated, which became her signature, “Que Sera Sera,” was given a brief showing. Still, some of the gems of the evening were less expected, such as “While the Music Plays On” (Eddie Heim/Irving Mills & Lupin Fien), a song from Day’s big band days that Oberlin delivered with an effective bluesy style, very different from Day’s version. There was also a delightfully whacky duet with Weber entitled “I’d Rather Be with You” (Roy Alfred & Frank Comstock), a list song that played on the celebrities of the day and that Oberlin updated to include today’s notable names with amusing results.
There were also heartfelt medleys of songs that complemented each other; early in the show a merger of “A Foggy Day” with “Day by Day” captured the romantic flair of both of the numbers. There was also a heartbreaking combination of “Night and Day” and “The Night We Called It a Day,” and a perfect combination of “Secret Love” (Day’s finest moment on film) and “I Got Lost in His Arms (which she sang in a fine studio recording of the movie version of Annie Get Your Gun). These mash ups were both theatrically effective and a sample of the intelligence that guided this evening. Bringing it to a close, Oberlin performed a simple and direct “unplugged” performance of “I’ll See You in My Dreams,” which was emblematic of this uncomplicated and deeply emotional celebration of one excellent singer by another.