Review: Sally Darling's TALES AND COCKTAILS Delivers Old-School Storytelling That's Divine... and Darling

The art of storytelling is one that was lost for a while. There were still people creating, but the public at large wasn't listening, having abandoned books for YouTube and paragraphs for one hundred forty characters. The great pleasures of life, though, will always circle back around, so there was never any risk that literature would fade into the background, relieving the storytelling community of their craft and their industry. These days, that industry is experiencing a miraculous and satisfying resurgence, thanks to narrative podcasts like The Reincarnated Radio Podcast and aeaea, to say nothing of actual live storytelling shows happening in a pre-covid entertainment scene. Since covid, the audiobook industry has been on the rise - and it was already doing pretty well. So the literature lovers of the world can rejoice in the preservation of books and stories.

They can also rejoice in the creation of Tales and Cocktails with Sally Darling.

Aptly named, Ms. Darling is not only beloved by the cabaret community, she is revered as a strong female leader, a musical storyteller of resolve and refinement, and a lady of elegance and eloquence. So when she decided to do a storytelling live stream on her Facebook page, members of the industry were intrigued, they were interested, but most of all they were excited... to have a chance to reconnect with one of the matriarchal figures of their community. The only problem was that it was, as she explains in the opening moments of episode one, her intention to do the show once or twice a month. Meg Flather had other ideas and Sally does her show every week, an interesting turn of events since it was Sally Darling who insisted that Meg Produce her show A CABARET SISTERHOOD. To hear each woman tell the story of how her show came to pass, exclusively of one another they use the exact same verbiage: "You don't argue with Meg Flather/Sally Darling." The twosome is clearly beneficial to all because Flather's Sisterhood show and Darling's TALES AND COCKTAILS are both winners.

With her signature Pixie haircut and Mid-Atlantic elocution, Sally Darling is like a character out of your favorite book or movie. She's that fascinating upstairs neighbor or globe-trotting Auntie, the like of which is played in movies by Wendy Hiller, on television by Lee Grant or on stage by Maggie Smith. She creates club acts about equally fascinating people like Beatrice Lillie and she sings the music of Kurt Weill... and Kander & Ebb. She is every great thing you've ever loved about every person you've known, heard of, read about or watched on screen who has their head in the clouds and their feet on the ground all the time, all at the same time. (In the name of total transparency, Ms. Darling and I have never met.) All of these factors lead up to one indisputable fact: if you want a storytelling show in which the stories are classic pieces of bona fide literature, that show must be helmed by Sally Darling.

There have been fourteen episodes of Tales and Cocktails so far. They range in length from eight minutes to one hour, and they are all archived on a Facebook page for the show HERE, though all-new episodes happen on Darling's personal FB page on Wednesday nights at six pm. There is little lead-in or fade-out other than Sally welcoming or bidding adieu to "My dears" - though on special occasions she does provide a little background on the story she will read. Truly special, though, is seeing the glimmer of delight in her eyes when she is about to read something that is one of her personal favorites. The authors thus far have included Thurber, Ferber, Parker and Welty, though this writer was enamored of her choice to recite a short by a giant named Ruth Gordon. Sometimes in the series, Ms. Darling has allowed her personal feelings to come out, particularly on the subject of goings-on in the Capital, or her motherly instincts to admonish viewers to take care of themselves during oncoming inclement weather. All of the personal exposure to Sally Darling is heart-warming and smile-inducing... but HOW she tells the STORIES! Audible sigh.

Imagine your second-grade school teacher, your favorite of all time, is back in front of you as you curl up on the floor to listen to her read to you. You loved it when she read to you because she used all the voice, and all the faces and she even directed her gaze hither and yon, to and fro, to indicate where the action was taking place. She didn't just rush through the stories the way your babysitter did, and she didn't just read it as herself like your Dad did. She put on a play for you, just using words, her voice, and your imagination. You were mesmerized... transfixed... transported... all by the power of words put on paper, then brought to life by a storyteller.

Dear readers, the gentle and sophisticated art of storytelling is very much alive and back in style, and though it can be found in many places, it currently resides wherever Sally Darling turns on her camera and tips up her glass.

See Tales and Cocktails on Wednesdays at 6 pm EST HERE.

Visit the Tales and Cocktails archive HERE.

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