Review: Christine Ebersole Achieves Quirky Poignancy While Reflecting on a New Chapter in AFTER THE BALL at the Café Carlyle

The Café Carlyle is one of most renowned venues for cabaret in the country, seeped in history so rich it could fill a PBS special. In no way, though, does its historical significance relegate a show to seriousness.

Take, for example, two-time Tony Award winner Christine Ebersole (42ND STREET, GREY GARDENS), who returned to the Café Carlyle for the start of what is her impressive sixth engagement at the supper club on October 11. Buoyant and self-effacing, Ebersole made it quite clear to her audience, through both her song selections and banter, that silliness and poignancy can walk hand in hand, often times to a more moving effect than either component on its own.

Additionally, the very title of Ebersole's show, AFTER THE BALL, encapsulates a duality of its own, of both the specific relief and now-what sadness which accompanies the turning of life's pages. That page for Ebersole currently refers to her now-empty nest, having recently sent the last of her three children off to college. Fittingly, Ebersole kicked off her set with the song from which she got her show's moniker, "After the Ball," by Charles K. Harris. Melancholic and lilt, the song was prescient in underlining the evening's intent to investigate---with humor, introspection, and splendid tunes---this new chapter of Ebersole's life.

Thus, Ebersole, with her world-class soprano and every-so-slightly loopy demeanor, divvied her show pointedly between the quirky and the sentimental, equally effective in entertaining the intimate audience. With regards to the former, Ebersole offered personalized takes on the bouncy "Toot Toot Tootsie Goodbye," the Gershwin classic "'S Wonderful," serving as a prudent reminder that Ebersole must at some point lead a full Gershwin piece (she once starred in an Encores! production of ZIEGFELD FOLLIES OF 1936), and "Look at that Face/What Did You Do to Your Face," offered as a "cautionary tale" of sorts, complete with facial gestures implying a certain static nature, if you will.

Of the more emotionally wrought songs, Ebersole remained endearing and was able to wholly transition the energy in the room at the mere shift of her own stature, a testament to her many years as a cabaret performer and the abilities which she has finely honed. The suitably seasonal "Autumn Leaves," undoubtedly performed within the confines of the Carlyle walls before, was more somber than its well-known, jazzier renditions due to Ebersole's particularly wistful interpretation. As sentimental was "(Have I Stayed) Too Long at the Fair." Truly, is there a more melancholic image in existence than that which is conjured by such a title? Both numbers allowed for the softer aspects of Ebersole's voice to soar, and both effectively cemented the themes of pensiveness and passage of time.

The song most successful in epitomizing those themes, though, which also doubled as the evening's most moving moment, came in the form of a mashup of Joni Mitchell's "Little Green" and "Wait till You See Her," a Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart joint. Ebersole's aforementioned children, now onto new chapters of their lives, too, were all adopted, and Ebersole warmly dedicated the song to her offspring's birth mothers. "I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the treasures you have given us, to make us a family."

Ebersole established the evening's finely crafted narrative, permeated effectively with song and story fluidity, alongside her musical director Lawrence Yurman, also on piano. He was accompanied by accomplished musicians, Larry Saltzman on guitar, and Mairi Dorman-Phaneuf on cello: "Larry, Larry and Mairi," Ebersole quipped when introducing them.

Less than 48 hours after this first performance, it was announced that the musical WAR PAINT, which Ebersole starred in in Chicago this past summer opposite Patti LuPone, would make a much-speculated transfer to Broadway later this season. The new piece, from the creative team behind GREY GARDENS, features Ebersole portraying cosmetics titan Elizabeth Arden with what is, according to a review from the New York Times, "enameled chipperness [and] self-surprising pain."

That contrast will undoubtedly demonstrate, just as she did on this evening on the Upper East Side, Ebersole's ability to captivate equally when she is either swimming in a pool of her own exuberance, or quietly powerful in her lived-in introspection. Without doubt is the conclusion that audiences of both Broadway and cabaret alike are lucky to have Ebersole and the gifts of her binary talents.

Christine Ebersole continues AFTER THE BALL at the Café Carlyle through October 22. For tickets and reservations, visit www.rosewoodhotels.com.

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