Review: Janice Hall Captures the Grandeur and Humanity of Dietrich in GRAND ILLUSIONS Revival

"Without Dietrich, there would have been no Madonna...and no Gaga," Janice Hall announced at the outset of her brilliant revival of GRAND ILLUSIONS: THE MUSIC OF MARLENE DIETRICH at the Metropolitan Room on September 13, the most recent installment of Stephen Hanks' New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits. Co-produced by Father Jeffrey R. Hamblin and flawlessly directed by Peter Napolitano, Hall's show---for which the former opera singer won both MAC and Bistro awards in 2011 and 2012, respectively---seamlessly weaves together the music and life of the enigmatic movie star and international cabaret sensation whose greatest creation, in Hall's words, "was herself."

Best known today for her work in film (The Blue Angel, Witness for the Prosecution, A Foreign Affair, and Stage Fright, to name a few) the "German Garbo" reinvented herself as a singer in the Weimar Cabaret tradition when, in the 1940s, Hollywood lost interest. "Exotic yet aristocratic, erotic yet unattainable," Dietrich maintained an aura of mystery though she traveled with and performed for American troops during WWII. "Dietrich was not like other USO performers," Hall explained.

Like a biographer who has lived with her subject for years, Hall conveys the pain Dietrich felt as one who refused Joseph Goebbels' offer to return to Germany in the late 1930s to become the "Nazi film queen." Applying for American citizenship, the once proud Berliner said, "The Germans and I no longer speak the same language." When she returned with the 82nd Airborne in 1960, already a star in Poland and Israel, attendance at her concerts was sparse. Fifteen years after the war, Dietrich's defiance had not been forgiven. Even upon her death at the age of 90, her New York Times obituary described the sentiments of the German people toward Dietrich as "mixed."

Nowhere is Dietrich's anguish more palpable than in the heartrending "Mutter hast Du mir vergeben" ("Mother, Have You Forgiven Me?"), originally titled "Do You Still Remember Me?" (Czeslaw Niemen), for which Dietrich wrote German lyrics. Also beautifully sung in Hall's polished soprano was "Lili Marleen" (Norbert Schultze, with English lyrics by Tommie Connor, Jimmy Phillips, Dietrich), which stopped dramatically before its final notes.

With her impeccable elocution and elegant spoken voice, Hall balances the tragic context of Dietrich's life and art with the star's playful irreverence in comedic songs like "You're the Cream in my Coffee" (B.G DeSylva, Lew Brown, Ray Henderson), "The Laziest Gal in Town" from Blonde Venus (Cole Porter), "I Couldn't Be Annoyed" from Stage Fright, and "The Boys in the Back Room" (Friedrich Hollaender/Frank Loesser) from Destry Rides Again, a Western. "Westerns weren't exactly her thing," Hall joked, but Dietrich knew how to adapt, and with the 1939 film, she found herself back on top. "The Boys in the Back Room" included one of the show's only vocal hiccups, but this didn't interfere with the comic relief the song provided.

Shifting from tragedy to comedy as effortlessly as she does from German to English (and, in an exquisite "La Vie En Rose," to French), Hall is as captivating in speech as in song. The story of Dietrich's audition for a part in a German film she never expected to get---and therefore didn't prepare for---captured her confident, flirtatious nature. When in 1937, Variety declared Dietrich (along with Garbo and Bette Davis) "box office poison," she set off for France and Italy. Isn't that what we all do, mused Hall, when unemployable?

Just as Dietrich was forced to improvise in life, she improvised in love, having affairs with both men and women. "It was no big deal to her," Hall said. Dietrich was in love with being in love, and while she sang "The Laziest Gal in Town" with conviction, she was "anything but lazy" romantically. If half the stories are true, Hall mused, it's hard to believe she managed to make as many movies as she did.

Ritt Henn on bass is the star of "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" (Alan Jay Lerner/Frederick Loewe). Henn, who will be appearing next year in the Hanks series, contributes greatly to the success of a show whose only major flaw is the uneven at best, and jarring at worst, playing of musical director Matthew Martin Ward. At four distinct points in the performance, I wondered if something was wrong with the instrument (though it wasn't noticeably out of tune). Passion is one thing, but he regularly bangs on the keys. It is a tribute to Hall and Renn that these moments don't detract from show as a whole.

Hall concludes with the Friedrich Hollaender/Sammy Lerner collaboration, "Falling In Love" ("Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuß auf Liebe eingestellt"), which took us full circle to the twin odes to Berlin with which Hall begins: "How Beautiful You Are, Berlin" ("Wie schön du bist, Berlin"; Jean Gilbert and Alfred Schoenfelt) and "I Always Keep a Suitcase in Berlin" ("Ich hab' noch einen Koffer in Berlin"; Ralph Maria Siegel, with German lyrics, Aldo von Pinelli, and English lyrics, Janice Hall).

Describing Berlin as a "less stressful, less expensive New York," Hall's own love for the city deepens our sense of Dietrich's feeling. The translation validates the comparison and, with minor alterations, captures the pride New Yorkers feel in their city: "Out in the country, they talk about us/They say that we're too cocky; that's only envy/A real Berliner is nobody's fool/Even when everything goes wrong, he keeps his sense of humor."

By evening's end, we have fallen in love with Hall and are reminded of Dietrich's grandeur, in spite of her tragic end, alone in a Paris apartment from which she did not emerge the last five years of her life. But in her movies and songs, the glamorous blonde forever associated with beaded gowns (and a dangling cigarette) gave us a "lasting gift." In GRAND ILLUSIONS: THE MUSIC OF MARLENE DIETRICH, Hall gives us a gift of her own.

New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits is a monthly series at the Metropolitan Room produced by Stephen Hanks' Cabaret Life Productions and Associate Producer Fr. Jeffrey Hamblin, MD. The next shows feature Susan Winter's Love Rolls On (October 7 at 7 pm), Deb Berman with All In Good Time (November 16 at 7 pm), and Ellen Kaye with Ice Wine: Songs for Christmas and Dark Winter Nights (December 13 at 7 pm). For reservations and information, go to: www.metropolitanroom.com

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