Talented McPhee Overreaches in Tribute to Cinegrill Performers

Cabaret can be a far more demanding art form than one might expect. A close sibling

of musical theater, it nonetheless demands an intimate rather than an expansive performance style. Using much of the repertoire employed by jazz singers, it focuses upon the words and the story rather than the singer and the music.

All of which can create difficulties for cabaret artists who smudge the boundaries, overreaching the closeness of their audiences or losing the focus of their songs.

Take singer Peisha McPhee, who opened a five-night run at the Cinegrill in the Roosevelt Hotel Tuesday before a full house of supportive fans. The goal of her show was a worthy one--a turn-of-the-century celebration of the many fine artists who have performed in the historic room, the Southland’s most visible cabaret venue.

It was a good idea in principle, but the devil was in the details. McPhee has what can best be described as a “big” voice, the kind of lush, arching soprano that can project convincingly from a musical theater stage.

In the relatively diminutive environs of the Cinegrill, however, especially in the instances in which she chose to end numbers with showcase high notes, she made far too little effort to shape her projection to the size of the club.

Nor did most of her renderings place the message of the songs front and center. Despite her obviously first-rate skills as an actress, her interpretations of a program ranging from Cole Porter and Kurt Weill to Rodgers & Hart and Sondheim tended to place the songs at the service of her voice rather than vice versa.

Her rich chest tones, for example--clearly one of her significant musical qualities--were often overemphasized in a phrase, regardless of the relative importance of the associated words.

Because of her distracting tendency to center on her vocal exposition, McPhee was at her best in songs with rapid-fire lyrics and quick-twisting melodies, making her Sondheim medley (“Could I Leave You,” “You Could Drive a Person Crazy,” etc.) the high point of her program. Similarly, when her somewhat overblown theatricality had an appropriate subject such as the Marlene Dietrich-associated “L’Heure Bleu,” McPhee could be extremely effective.

She was superbly accompanied by musical director Mel Dangcil’s smoothly understated piano playing. And Dangcil also provided McPhee with a fitting closer--a “Cinegrill Tribute” to some of the female cabaret artists (Margaret Whiting, Eartha Kitt, Shirley Horn and others) who have worked the fabled venue.

BE THERE

Peisha McPhee at the Cinegrill in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, 7000 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. Tonight and Friday, $15 cover. Saturday, $20 cover. With $10 minimum purchase (waived for diners at Theodore’s Restaurant). Shows at 8 p.m. (323) 466-7000.