POP MUSIC REVIEW : Jane Olivor Has ‘Some Enchanted Evening’ in Cerritos

For much of the past decade, Jane Olivor has been a name most often found at the end of “hey, whatever happened to . . .?”

Fans will remember that in the late ‘70s/early ‘80s, she had a few modest hits--most notably a cover of the Chiffons’ “He’s So Fine” and a duet with Johnny Mathis on the Oscar-nominated “Last Time I Felt Like This” from the 1979 film “Same Time Next Year.”

The Brooklyn-bred singer would find her voice and performing style being compared--sometimes favorably, sometimes not so--with the likes of Barbra Streisand, Judy Garland and Edith Piaf. And then, in 1983, she disappeared from the music scene. The reasons were never made entirely clear but stage fright, unhappiness with her Columbia Records contract, and her husband’s health (he died of cancer in 1986) reportedly were factors.

Within the last year or two, she began to attempt a comeback, playing smallish venues across the country. Saturday night found her at the new Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, sporting a different look but mostly singing the same old songs, to the delight of a near-sellout crowd of about 1,500.

The new Jane Olivor is a blond punk-coiffed version with a far bolder stride than in days past. But look just beneath the ear ornaments and you’ll see the Olivor of old--shy, vulnerable, engagingly unsure of herself.

It is this childlike innocence and frailty that make so wondrous her treatments of such songs as “The Last Time I Felt Like This” and “Some Enchanted Evening.” Her expressive yet sometimes tentative style lends them a poignancy and joyousness that other singers might miss entirely. In fact, “Some Enchanted Evening”--a song without any room for innovation, one might think--was perhaps the highlight of the show precisely because Olivor’s shadings were so intimate and personal.

Despite prodding from the crowd (“where have you been, Jane?”), the closest she came to an onstage explanation of her long performing hiatus was a read-between-the-lines a cappella rendition of the ballad “I’m Coming Home Again”:

I’m not as frightened as I was before.

Though I remember why I went away,

It’s looking now like I will stay.

That musical statement of purpose drew the first of several standing ovations.

Actually, if you didn’t know about Olivor’s self-confessed history of stage fright, you probably wouldn’t have suspected a thing Saturday night. Even when technicians had problems getting a cassette of backup vocals up and running, she held her audience with engaging banter and a sense of humor (at one point she looked up at the viewing boxes surrounding the stage and remarked: “You know, you do look like you’re living in condominiums here.”)

She sang “He’s So Fine” while sitting on the lip of the stage--an odd choice, as even slowed down, this doo-wop ditty isn’t exactly a song most suited for intimate contact with an audience. She ventured into the crowd for “Carousel of Love” and “L’Important C’est La Rose,” and both times it seemed a bit forced, but maybe she views it as part of a multistep recovery program or something.

Another step in that recovery probably would be an album, and while she has revealed no immediate plans, she did try out a bit of new material. The “Works in Progress” portion of the show found her on a stool, reading glasses incongruously perched beneath her spiked hair, singing a trio of selections to spare (mostly piano) accompaniment. The best of these was a poignant ballad about parental acceptance of a child’s independence, called “The Hardest Part of Love.”

She attempted to throw some Cajun and country into the mix--an admirable effort, but ill-advised. Mary-Chapin Carpenter’s “Mary’s Land” will likely never be a washboard-scrubbing rave-up in Olivor’s hands.

Still, the worst moments of this very brief set (just 70 minutes, including encores) came during theatrical, clenched-fist renditions of such programmed show stoppers as “One More Ride on the Merry-Go-Round” and “The Big Parade.” Not only was her four-man band pitifully weak accompaniment to these rousers, but Olivor seemed to be trying to convince herself, as much as the audience, of her talent and enthusiasm.

She can relax. Her devoted fans didn’t seem to need convincing. They were content just knowing that she’s back.