Review: Alexandra Silber Glimmers Bright As The North Star In THE HOUR OF THE PEARL at The Green Room 42

It is fitting that, in this terrible time of turmoil for our Jewish friends and neighbors, this week in cabaret began and ended with bookended acts by two of the industry’s most prominent Jewish artists, who also happen to be two of the industry’s most excellent cabaret performers, and that their shows should be a demonstration of such varied aesthetic, both differently informed by each storyteller’s Judaism.  Monday night at Chelsea Table + Stage Ari Axelrod played his hit show A TIME FOR US: A CELEBRATION OF JEWISH BROADWAY (read Ricky Pope’s review HERE) - a show that was, from tip to tail, about the community of Jewish artists that have informed musical theater.  Last night, The Green Room 42 saw Alexandra Silber’s musical cabaret THE HOUR OF THE PEARL in its East Coast debut, and even though the program was not as specifically about Judaism as Mr. Axelrod’s, it was very much informed by Ms. Silber’s devotion to her faith and spirituality, even to the point of an observed moment of silence and deliberate but delicate mentions of the unrest in the Middle East and with Jewish communities all over the world.  It is a thing of beauty to see two of the industry’s most authentic and unusually special artists share their entire beings, not just their talent, with their audiences.  That depth of generosity in their sharing is an essential element in what makes these two friends and colleagues part of something greater in show business and in the world.  They are special.  And they deserve to be lauded, praised and lifted to the light.

With THE HOUR OF THE PEARL, Alexandra Silber (known far and wide simply as Al) continues her love affair with the art form of storytelling.  Not one to be put into a box or defined, the singing actress has made her mark on the theatrical stage, the concert stage, and the cabaret stage as a singing storyteller but she has also made her voice heard by way of books, plays, and social media videos of both an inspirational and humorous nature.  Alexandra Silber is an equal-opportunity storyteller, and she can do it any way, anywhere, any time, dressed in head-to-toe sequins or wearing no make-up and a ponytail.  Decades from today she will be white-haired and wizened and still telling stories, possibly at a lectern, or possibly on a park bench.  This is in her blood, and she is not to be stopped or deterred, and when she stormed the stage of The Green Room 42 (in head-to-toe sequins, this time), she came to work, she came to inspire, and she came to raise the vibrations in the room to new heights.

Mission most definitely accomplished.

There is nothing out of the ordinary about the program that Silber and her ‘Musical husband’ Ben Moss have curated.  The setlist seems easy enough, with famous songs from Camelot, from The King and I, from legendary composers named Sondheim, Herman, and Weill.  This could be a setlist of songs created for just about any musical cabaret, maybe even a piano bar open mic night.  They are good songs, nay, even great songs, but they are standards.  So what makes THE HOUR OF THE PEARL so memorable?  Al.  For Al is anything but standard.  Indeed, Al is above the standard.  The force of benevolence and panache with which she fills the room is beyond compare, and it is the foundation of her script, and the delivery of that script that sets her apart.  The Lady sits, a tower of power, on her cabaret stool and lives.  She Lives.  There is no discomfort.  There is no stage fright.  There is nothing but a woman talking to a room full of people, in all of her truth.  She is funny (she is funny AF), she is honest, she is real (and honest and real are two different things, although they may seem the same), and she is unafraid to say that which has come into her mind, either by way of the words written in preparation for the performance or those happening extemporaneously.  There are serious topics confronted and there is the levity of life, and Al Silber handles it all with the ease of more than just a professional storyteller - she makes it happen as a Natural, as someone who was born with this gift, someone who came to this plane with that extra something.  And this is all before the genius Mr. Moss plays even one note of music for Al to use as her buoy in song.  When that happens, it’s The Hour Of The Pearl.

A good, no, a great cabaret artist has the ability to become a gallery of picture frames filled with stories.  They need no connective tissue from number to number - they can just step into the frame, sort of like Mary Poppins stepped into the sidewalk painting, thus taking their audience along with them.  That is Alexandra Silber.  From the optimism and bounce of opening number “Do I Hear A Waltz?” to the fraught focus in evening highlight “Lost In The Stars,” Al captures the imagination and takes away the breath, using an arsenal of acting skills most readily described as unbelievable.  The connection to the lyrics is palpably impressive, rendering an old chestnut from Annie into an eye-opener, and new experiences like the title song from ARLINGTON into a hypnotism.  In she steps, and we follow, out she comes, and we follow, and each time we meet a new character.  THAT is cabaret, and THIS is her Mistress.  

In an evening of highlights, this writer found particular delight in Al Silber’s fully realized performance of “I Don’t Want To Know” (one of the best concert performances of the song yet witnessed), unexpected deep dives into jazz (a stellar “Black Coffee”) and country (Al Silber and Kenny Chesney?  Yes, please), and an extremely touching tribute to the late Sheldon Harnick, by way of some Amalia Balash and a personal reminiscence about Al’s mentor and dear friend, responsible for some of her most important roles.  Again, these aren’t songs picked out of obscurity for Alexandra Silber’s cabaret show - they are all songs we know (mostly), and Al is performing them with the voice of a true blue musical theater actress, a soprano you can enjoy as the ingenue that can also belt out the character roles.  It’s not a distinctive voice like, say, a Minnelli or a Holliday, it is a beautiful voice of a singing actress.  But, oh, what an actress.  Watching Al Silber perform this series of musical monologues makes the mind reel with possibilities, the consideration of which leads to only one logical conclusion:  Alexandra Silber must have all the parts.  Just give them to her.  Is she too old to play Amelie?  Do it at The Muny.  Is she too pretty to play Catherine Sloper?   Trust that she can make it happen.   Is she too young to play Martha in Who’s Afraid…?  Give her a year or two.  Then give her all the parts.  She deserves it.  And so do her audiences, in the theater or in the concert halls: the people deserve all of Alexandra Silber, and it is these simple nights of cabaret storytelling that prove that point.

As for her colleagues in creation, there can be no end to the superlatives that could or should be heaped upon Ben Moss, one of the best music-making multi-hyphenates in the business, and may this musical marriage last forever.  But there is a third creative working wizardry during The Hour Of The Pearl, and that is Sheridan Glover, the resident tech director at The Green Room 42.  Sheridan is always en pointe with every show but this one has truly inspired the proficient to new heights in which the design, both lights and sound, becomes a third character in the Silber/Moss play.  In a city and industry that seems to lean too hard on an overabundance of amber gels, Sheridan Glover is painting on a scale worthy of hanging in a museum.  Perhaps Alexandra Silber simply inspires the best out of people - not an unfathomable thought because this jewel of an artist, this gem of a human, this pearl called Al is the most luminous and rare of them all.

THE HOUR OF THE PEARL will play The Green Room 42 on November 28th at 7 pm.  Tickets are accessible HERE.

Visit the Alexandra Silber website HERE.

THIS is the Ben Moss website.

Photos by Stephen Mosher

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