CABARET REVIEW : Marcovicci Reveals Flair for Tales

Lyricists would be hard put to find a better friend than singer-actress Andrea Marcovicci. Wednesday night at the Gardenia Club--in the opening performance of a two-week run--the slender, raven-haired performer gave an object lesson in how to uncover the dramatic narrative in classic American popular songs.

Describing herself as a “torch singer,” Marcovicci devoted most of her performance, appropriately, to the impassioned love songs of Rodgers and Hart, Cole Porter and Jerome Kern. Rarely focusing on anything other than the kernel of dramatic truth within each song, she generated blossoming new life in such familiar items as “Where or When,” “My Romance,” “All The Things You Are” and, especially, “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.”

In acknowledgement of the season, she also included a medley of Christmas songs (including the humorous and rarely heard verse to “White Christmas” in which the Beverly Hills-based songwriter laments the landscape of palm trees rather than snow) and an interesting, if musically shaky, set of unfamiliar English carols.

Marcovicci’s humor, always an intrinsic element in her performances, was in rapier-sharp form, with between-songs patter that managed to mix information about the songs into a virtually nonstop stream of topical witticisms.

Despite her impressive understanding of the lyric content of the songs, however, Marcovicci stumbled occasionally with the music. Neither her voice nor her range is particularly large, and she had a tendency--especially noticeable on an evening when she was suffering with a cold--to sing entire numbers with the same monochromatic timbre.

As one of the most impressive young talents on the contemporary cabaret scene, Marcovicci clearly has the skills and--given her current popularity--the opportunities to do much more. Perhaps it’s time for her to worry a bit less about the size of her repertoire and pay a little more attention to the fact that songs are not just stories, but stories sung to music.

Marcovicci was ably accompanied by pianist Glenn Mehrbach.