Cabaret has never suffered a dearth of French female singers. In the 1970s and 80s and well into the 90s, Jeanne Beauvais, Baronne, and Greta were among the very masters/mistresses of the art form. Yvonne Constant, though perhaps just slightly below the radar at that time, has completely and utterly established herself among them with her present show, What Now? A Tribute to Mike at the Metropolitan Room, which makes another appearance on March 18th and is a burst of fresh air. She is as breathtaking as a freshly-baked croissant.
Aided ably by musical director Russ Kassoff at the piano, Constant opens the show with a medley of Weill and Brecht's "Tango Ballad," and both "La Boheme" and "Le Temps" by
Charles Aznavour. A perfectly lovely rendering of "Whenever I Think of Paris," by
Steve Ross and
Barry Day, is followed by "A Quoi Ca Sert L'Amour?" originally popularized as a duet in the late career of
Edith Piaf and her final husband Theo Sarapo, and then also delivered in English as "What Is the Use of Love?" with Kassoff's additional vocals. "Ne Me Quitte Pas" by
Jacques Brel emerges as utterly chilling, and
Leslie Bricusse/Anthony Newley's "The Good Old Bad Old Days" is nothing short of brilliant. It's also a marvelous surprise to hear her sing Weill's "Bilbao Song" in English, and her phrasing on Brel's "La Valse a Mille Temps" is rendered absolutely gorgeous with phenomenal phrasing. It nearly makes one wonder what technical director
Jean-Pierre Perreaux, himself a Parisian native and who does his usual splendid job on the lights and sound, must think of Constant's delivery in their mother tongue.
Yvonne Constant is simply "magnifique." She's more or less guaranteed a joyous return to a club before long. But for those who can't get there on the 18th to bear witness to her majestic presence on a cabaret stage, she should not be brushed off with a mere sigh of "c'est la vie."
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