Feinstein sets high standard in new room

Feinstein’s at the Cinegrill, an elegant but comfortably relaxed addition to Los Angeles’ short list of upscale nightclubs, opened with a celebrity-studded flourish Tuesday at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The headliner, appropriately, was Michael Feinstein himself.

Nearly two decades after he began to develop his skills at the former Cinegrill, the gifted singer-pianist, now one of the preeminent interpreters of the Great American Songbook, delivered a brilliant performance, setting a high standard of excellence for his new room.

The show, “Movie Music: Winners and Losers,” was obviously timed to follow Sunday’s Oscars. The selections embraced Oscar winners, nominees and songs that, as Feinstein put it, “should have been nominated.”

Feinstein has always enhanced his musical skills with an encyclopedic knowledge of American song, and his well-paced performance was peppered with bits and pieces of entertaining background material. But it was the interpretations, reaching into the heart of every song, that made the evening special.

“Thanks for the Memory,” for example, was returned to its touching, original incarnation. Perhaps best of all, there was the climactic “As Time Goes By,” sung with its original verse, defining, in Feinstein’s compelling reading, the very essence of what movie songs are all about.

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Michael Feinstein

Where: Feinstein’s at the Cinegrill, Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, 7000 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood

When: Tonight-April 5 and April 14-26 (except Sundays). Monday-Thursday, 8:30 p.m.; Friday-Saturday, 8:30 and 10:30 p.m.

Price: $50, plus $30 minimum beverage or dinner purchase

Info: (323) 769-7269