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Susannah McCorkle (Oak Room, Algonquin Hotel; 85 capacity; $50) Musical director and piano, Allen Farnham; Opened and reviewed Oct. 25, 2000; closes Nov.
25. In her ninth season at Manhattan's Oak Room, Susannah McCorkle contends that in the new world of computer language, faxes and cell phones, love affairs still manage to triumph over all and "old songs don't seem so dangerous anymore." Stately and handsome in a dark green velvet gown, the singer, who also happens to be a fine writer, spaces her well focused repertoire with her own nicely conceived linking narrative of life in Manhattan as a hopeless romantic. Not many singers could take a 60-year-old antique like "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire" and invest it with the kind of ardent longing heard here, nor reveal the smoky desperation of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Love Look Away" in quite the way it is framed by McCorkle. Her voice has a satiny seductive edge, and as a sultry storyteller, she knows how to find the heartbreak in a lyric and lay the gloom right in the lap of the listener. On her new Concord CD, "Hearts and Minds," the singer sets the torch aside, adding considerable wit to her program with Dave Frishberg's irreverent ode to the legal profession, "My Attorney Bernie," Fran Landesman's advice on knowing when to leave, "Feet Do Your Stuff," and McCorkle's own amusing and reluctant acceptance of the new millennium, "The Computer Age." The singer's personal passions extend to the Big Apple, despite the fact that "taxi drivers don't speak her language and, worse, don't know the way." Acting as tour guide, McCorkle has devised a love letter entitled "A Night in Manhattan" that encompasses bits and pieces of several significant big city musical tributes, from Rodgers and Hart to Sondheim, Cole Porter and Billy Joel. McCorkle's longtime musical director is
Allen Farnham, and he contributes a bold melodic statement with his deft support and
inserts some dazzling flights of jazz piano. |