CABARET REVIEW : BARBARA COOK: TEARS, LAUGHTER

Singer Barbara Cook spends most of her time on the concert and cabaret stages these days. Bad news, perhaps, for those who remember this musical actress’s stunning performances in “Carousel,” “The Music Man” and “She Loves Me” (among many others). But there’s good news, too, and it’s not just the opportunity to hear a star-level Broadway performer without having to spring for the astronomical price of tickets to the current musical theater.

Friday night at the Beverly Theater, Cook confirmed, once again, that she is a performer who can make an audience laugh and cry quite well without a book, thank you, so long as she can dip into the vast treasure of classic American songs. (And, given the quality of most recent Broadway musical books, there wasn’t much to miss, anyhow.)

If Cook’s voice didn’t quite achieve the crystalline purity that it did in her ingenue days, it was still an awesomely expressive instrument--one that ranged easily from her trademark high head tones to a rich, chesty contralto.

She was aided--partnered might be a better description--by the consistently inventive piano playing and arranging of her musical director, Wally Harper. His charts and her puckish interpretations of “Come Rain or Come Shine,” “Sweet Georgia Brown,” “Wait Till You See Him” and “Carolina in the Morning” demonstrated how much life can be brought to old songs by an inventive and loving touch.

But, with one exception, Cook was at her best singing and reminiscing her way through a rich selection of theater songs, from early Rodgers and Hart to late Sondheim. The exception was Janis Ian’s “Stars,” a song which, in Cook’s hands, finally achieved the sad world-weariness that always seemed a little silly when Ian sang it.

This was Cook’s first public visit to Los Angeles since 1984. That’s too long an absence. Here’s one enthusiastic vote for a return engagement every year--at least--from this superb performer.