Still Singing Standards, but Not Just Old Ones

“When you’re alone and life is making you lonely, you can always go . . . downtown,” Andrea Marcovicci warbles, leaning on the grand piano in her Studio City living room. The mood? Wistful, yearning rather than relentlessly upbeat--a far cry from Petula Clark’s mid-’60s hit version of the song.

It’s Marcovicci’s novel reinterpretation of familiar tunes that has made the former TV and movie actress a star on the cabaret circuit. The journey, which began in Los Angeles at the Gardenia Club in 1985, has taken Marcovicci to Carnegie Hall, the Algonquin Hotel--even to the White House.

For years, the singer concentrated on the old masters, from Jerome Kern to Noel Coward to Rodgers & Hart. She recently expanded her focus, however, putting together an evening of baby boomer standards such as the Beatles’ “In My Life” and Joni Mitchell’s “All I Want.” “Our Songs: 1965-1985” will be performed by Marcovicci and her accompanist, Shelly Markham, at UCLA’s Royce Hall on Saturday, her first major Los Angeles concert in a decade.

Turning 50 two years ago motivated the shift--as did the arrival of the millennium.

“In 2020, I wondered, which songs will be our ‘As Time Goes By’?” Marcovicci says. “They didn’t stop writing standards in 1960--every time I pack a bag I think of ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane.’ Reinterpretation, finding subtext was crucial, of course. Delivering those songs as is could have become baby boomer Muzak.”

The show, which premiered at the Algonquin’s Oak Room in 1999, has drawn consistently strong reviews. “[‘Our Songs’] has the power of revelation, freshening and enhancing the soundtrack of an entire generation,” Daniel Okrent wrote in Esquire.

Marcovicci settled on that “soundtrack” after perusing hundreds of songs. Each had to be “actable,” she says, with a beginning, middle and end. Stevie Wonder’s “All in Love Is Fair” was the most “torch-like,” reminiscent of Harold Arlen. And the Beatles’ “For No One” the most brutal. Her 10th album, “Here, There, and Everywhere” (on Cabaret Records), is having its West Coast release in conjunction with the show.

“I had to dig the ‘standards’ out from a lot of bubble gum, but that’s true of any period,” said a barefoot Marcovicci, unwinding, post-rehearsal, with a cup of herbal tea.

“The more contemporary composers were every bit as poetic and melodic--albeit more complex and analytical in their love songs. Paul Simon and Joni Mitchell were the best of the love poets--questioning the ‘happily-ever-after’ ethic as we were all doing at that time. People poke each other when I start singing these tunes--shared memories are the key.”

Critics agree that Marcovicci’s appeal lies less in her voice per se than in her interpretive powers. A veteran of TV shows such as “Trapper John, M.D.” and “Taxi,” and films such as “The Front” and “The Hand,” she treats each song as a mini-play. In this case, growing her hair and dousing herself with Norell created the proper mind-set.

“Ms. Marcovicci emotes like a Method actress, living out the moment-by-moment life of a song as though it were a pressing personal drama,” said the New York Times’ Stephen Holden in a review of “Our Songs.”

Known as an intellectual chanteuse, Marcovicci calls herself a “historian.” Last year, Lincoln Center commissioned her to create a Kurt Weill show to mark his 100th birthday. Her songs are interspersed with quotes from Nietzsche and Dorothy Parker--and poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay. Marcovicci also serves up stories about herself, cutting her Old World elegance with self-deprecating humor.

An unabashed romantic, Marcovicci specializes in love songs--particularly the downbeat kind. Growing personally and professionally, however, has altered her approach.

“I’m happier now,” she says. “I no longer pattern myself on Helen Morgan or Billie Holiday--defenseless women buffeted around by life. I’m closer to Mabel Mercer and Frank Sinatra, who were wise enough to know that relationships rarely work out--but, at the same time, didn’t want to be bored.”

Growing up on Manhattan’s East Side, Marcovicci had one foot in another era. Her mother was a former beauty queen and torch song singer. Her father, with clients such as Mary Martin and Judy Garland, was known as “Physician to the Stars.” Regulars at the Stork Club and El Morocco, they raised a daughter who turned off the boys by crooning “That Man of Mine” at her fifth birthday party.

In the late 1960s, Marcovicci started folk singing at Greenwich Village’s Bitter End and 10 years later moved into cabaret. Holding court at the trendy Reno Sweeney, she developed an avid following. TV and movies, however, were her primary focus. She was often cast as a tormented soul--and in Broadway shows that closed out of town.

Humble Beginnings of a Singing Career

After moving to Los Angeles in 1978, Marcovicci began a long-term relationship with film director Henry Jaglom. He made her the centerpiece of his 1985 movie “Someone to Love” and encouraged her to resume singing. Marcovicci was approached by her friend Tom Rolla, owner of the Gardenia nightclub. He booked her at midnight on Saturdays--a challenging slot in an early-to-bed town.

“Andrea was brilliant--but terrified of facing an audience,” Jaglom said recently in a separate interview. “She’d make a couple of hundred dollars in cover charges and, on bad nights, sing for eight people. After the show, we’d head for Canter’s [deli]--picking apart the show until 4 a.m. People thought I directed her. My only advice was, ‘Be honest.’ ”

“Marcovicci at Midnight” eventually caught on, propelling the singer to San Francisco’s Plush Room and then to the Algonquin. She became an institution at the hotel, performing every year since. Things also came together on the personal front. Marcovicci has a 5-year-old daughter, Alice, with actor Daniel Reichert, whom she married in 1993.

After her one-woman show at Carnegie Hall that year, the singer’s career snowballed. She’s appeared in London and Australia and with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. For her mother’s 80th birthday, she took her on tour, performing with her onstage. In September, she’ll star in a revival of Weill’s “Lady in the Dark” that opens in Philadelphia.

For the moment, however, the focus is her Hollywood homecoming--and “Double Old Fashioned,” her next show. A glimpse into the world of cocktails and cafe society, it will be tested out soon at the Gardenia.

“It’s ironic,” Marcovicci says. “I stopped worrying about success and did the thing I was most passionate about. That’s what made me a star. And it’s great to know that I’ll be working at 70. Unlike movie and television actresses, cabaret artists are allowed to grow up.”

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Andrea Marcovicci performs Saturday at Royce Hall, UCLA, 8 p.m. $25 to $45. (310) 825-2101.