Review: Susan Derry INGENUE YOU WHEN Puts Authenticity In The Spotlight at Feinstein's/54 Below

The late, great Dick Gallagher was heard to observe that cabaret "is the art of being yourself on purpose." Not every person who steps up onto a stage in a small venue is actually ready to do that, and it's fine because that can be a place more intimate, more vulnerable than some are ready to be. So those people get all dressed up in a character - sometimes a character based on themselves, but a character, nonetheless. When Susan Derry made her Feinstein's/54 Below solo show debut last Wednesday night, there was no "version" of herself standing in the spotlight, for Susan Derry did exactly what the late Maestro Gallagher wished for every cabaret artist to do. Susan Derry was one hundred percent herself, and it showed in every charming moment of her personally informed act.

INGENUE YOU WHEN is the cleverly titled cabaret that Ms. Derry has crafted about her life as a young musical theater leading lady. It would be ungallant to comment on Susan Derry's age, but she does happen to mention during the performance that she has a son in his twenties, so there is tangible proof that, even though she looks exactly the same as she did when she appeared on Broadway in the 2003 revival of Wonderful Town, this ingenue has grown up. There is also the matter of visible proof that Derry is less of an ingenue these days because, from the seats out front, Susan Derry looked like a smokin' hot rocker babe in her black leather slacks, shape-swirling sleeveless top, and higher-than-the-sky black pumps. Yes, it is definitely time for Susan Derry's agents to focus on moving her into some sexier, more mature musical theater roles, something along the lines of Vera Simpson... but that is Susan Derry's future. And Ingenue You When is about Susan Derry's past, and how it informed who she is today.

Like The Ingenues she has portrayed, Ms. Derry has an almost perpetual smile, and it isn't one of those obligatory smiles that you sometimes see on a performer's face - Susan Derry simply seems always to be happy, content, optimistic, and that comes out in the stories she tells, along with a sense of humor that can range from respectable to ribald, sometimes in the course of an entire number, as her Phantom Of The Opera in German story showcases. Taking the audience on a journey from her childhood trip to see Madama Butterfly through two expensive degrees and a record-breaking number of appearances in the Encores! series to her upcoming CD release, Susan Derry creates a visual, musical chart of the life of a working actress. This is not the life of a star, it is not the life of a legend, it's the life of a working actress, and the lives of working actors are important and interesting... having this life pieced together by the songs of Jerry Herman (brilliantly arranged by Musical Director Howard Breitbart), Rodgers & Hammerstein, Lerner & Loewe and their contemporaries throughout the years informs the story being told in precisely the proper way, allowing Ms. Derry to reveal who she is, what she thinks, and how she feels at this stage of her career and life.

With the rich fullness of her classical training and the inherent brightness of her natural sound, it is easy to see why Susan Derry has had so successful a career on the musical theater stage, but with Ingenue You When, the sunny soprano has taken an important step onto a new stage, and it is one she should continue to nurture. With her detail-oriented director, Julia Murney, Susan has crafted a script that is better than most debut cabaret shows, choosing carefully the words she will fasten together to bring to life the sentences bridging each of her thirteen musical numbers. She knows exactly what she wants to say, when to be economic with her patter, and when to let the rhetoric flow. Susan also knows when to dial back the dimples and serve up somber or sexy, though the darker numbers are definitely outnumbered by the cheery - and while Ms. Derry continues to present Ingenue You When (which she should), the concept for her next show is in the process of being born, right before her audience's eyes. Dream Team Derry and Murney should turn their eyes to the highlight of the show, a stunning, smoldering "So In Love" created by bass player Saadi Zain, in which Susan Derry all but throws the ingenue image right out the window, claiming her sexuality and womanhood. There's an act in this number, one with Susan and Saadi sharing a stage, some blue light, and probably a bottle of The Macallan, while they reinvent, for voice and bass, some Broadway, some pop, and some Great American Songbook. It will also give Susan a chance to explore a lower register that doesn't get enough stage time during Ingenue You When, a show that leans heavily on Susan's soprano status. When, near the end of the show, the "So In Love" duet happened and those low notes came out, members of the audience could be heard melting around the room.

Other highlights in Ms. Derry's debut were numbers with guest artists JD Webster (an Encore's mashup, complete with binders - that they never looked at once) and Megan Sikora (a sisters duet by Irving Berlin, rather personally informed by their own lives). As Derry and Murney book this act into other clubs, an effort should be made to keep Sikora and Webster available because, although Susan has everything required to sell a completely solo show, the inclusion of these two numbers carries more than just great musical entertainment: it brings with it the all-important factor of lifelong friends made during shows, an element of "the actor's life" that often makes a career in show business more valuable than the act of performing. Both numbers and both guest stars fit Ms. Derry and her show like perfectly tailored gloves, but the truth is that for the duration of Ingenue You When, it is pretty clear that Susan Derry knows who she is, what works for her, and who she wants to surround herself with in her new venture in the cabaret world, and that's the foundation upon which a good cabaret show is built. So, it looks like Susan Derry and cabaret are just one more good fit, all from being herself.

Susan Derry Ingenue You When was a one-off performance. Look for other great shows (and a hopeful reprisal of Ingenue You When) at the 54 Below website HERE.

Visit the Susan Derry website HERE.

Photos by Stephen Mosher

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