Jazz Reviews : Kazan Pulls Out All the Stops at Cinegrill

Lainie Kazan approaches singing pretty much the way she deals with her other entertainment endeavors: full out and sometimes over the top.

Diva Grande. Soulful Torch Singer. Sexy Chanteuse. Kazan--who can never be accused of lacking a sense of humor--would probably laugh heartily at the descriptions, but there’s no denying their appropriateness. It pairs with a self-supplied favorite description of a few of her more prominent acting roles: Jewish Mamma.

And, at some point in Kazan’s larger-than-life, let’s-rattle-the-walls opening night performance at the Cinegrill on Thursday, each description was applicable, often simultaneously.

Kazan, whose career has shifted from nightclubs to television to musical theater since she gained public attention as Barbra Streisand’s understudy in “Funny Girl,” is in one of her back-to-music phases. A new recording, “Body and Soul” (MusicMasters) was released in October, and she just completed a two-week run at Tatou in New York City.

Most of her Cinegrill set was devoted to a moody collection of such ballads as “Body and Soul,” “Embraceable You” and “The Man That Got Away.”

“They’re the story of my life,” she said, not at all whimsically.

And she sang them as though her life was at stake in every turn of phrase. Awesomely dominating the Cinegrill’s mini-stage, she didn’t interpret her songs so much as she used the songs to interpret herself. Almost every line provided opportunities for a passionate high note, an angry chest tone or an arms akimbo gesture of climactic release.

As theater, it was great. Kazan comes from a musical lineage that reaches back through Streisand, Eydie Gorme and Judy Garland, with a trace of drama from Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. Like her predecessors, she knows how to squeeze a phrase until it screams for mercy, and her powers were on profuse display for an overflow, intensely responsive crowd filled with celebrities, friends and associates.

As music, however, it left a bit to be desired. Kazan has a vocal instrument good enough to sing almost anything. And when her marvelous comedic faculties came to the fore in songs like “Some of These Days” and “I Live Alone and I Like It,” there was a tempting glimpse of unrevealed skills. But too often her look-at-me readings overwhelmed her material, reducing whatever variety her performance might otherwise have had to a repetitious melange of Kazan heartache.

* Lainie Kazan at the Cinegrill in the Radisson Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, 7000 Hollywood Blvd., (213) 466-7000. Tonight at 8 and 10:30 p.m., $30. Kazan also performs Wednesday and Thursday, $25, at 8 p.m., and Friday and Nov. 19 at 8 and 10:30 p.m., $30. There is a two-drink minimum for all shows.