BLUES IN THE NIGHT BUT STARS IN HER EYES

Susannah McCorkle

Oak Room at the Algonquin

You don’t have to be a longtime New Yorker to savor the bittersweet humor of Susannah McCorkle’s newest cabaret show, "Hearts and Minds," which plays through November 25. The show, which might be described as a diary of Manhattan mood swings, skillfully uses songs to illustrate the psychological changes of a character Ms. McCorkle refers to only in the second person.

That "you" is an over-30 single Manhattan everywoman whose romantic search is a love-hate relationship with the city as much as it is a quest for a stable, happy relationship. At one point in the journey, she leaves the city only to return gratefully to the same old problems. "A Night in Manhattan," the wittiest section of the show, weaves bits of classic songs about New York into a phantasmagoria of urban frustrations.

Through it all, Ms. McCorkle, accompanied on piano by Allen Farnham and on bass by Bill Moring, conveys the optimism and exasperation of a brainy, intrepid ingenue. Her superb taste in songs ranges from Dave Frishberg’s brilliantly sour apercus to compositions with lyrics by the indefatigable Fran Landesman like "Scars," a ballad that advises us to wear our emotional wounds like battle ribbons.

Ms. McCorkle’s sultry vocal minimalism and her phrasing, which strongly echoes Billie Holiday’s, sustain a mood that’s simultaneously pensive, light, and airily sexy. Her versions of "Love Look Away" and "I Can Dream, Can’t I?" distill a gossamer wistfulness of such delicacy you want to hold your breath.