Review: Goldie Dver Presents Next Level WHAT A MAN! at Don't Tell Mama

“This is a near-perfect cabaret.”

That was me, whispering to Richard Hillman at the next table.  He nodded back and said, “It really is!”

My old friend and I shared this exchange during the round of applause right after Goldie Dver finished singing a medley of “Feeling Good” and “Gonna Build a Mountain.”  Of course, a few songs later, the show was finished and I had to retract my original statement.  I had to do this because WHAT A MAN! is not a near-perfect cabaret.  WHAT A MAN! is a perfect cabaret.  

I had read my colleague Analisa Bell’s review of Ms. Dver’s new musical cabaret; it was a positive review that began with the confession that she did not know who Anthony Newley was before attending the tribute show.  That’s ok.  It happens.  There are a lot of artists I didn't know that I got to know because of a cabaret show.  This is one of the reasons tribute shows are so valuable: they can introduce audiences to an artist they had not, previously, known.  And Anthony Newley is worth knowing - I ought to know, I grew up idolizing the man.  It’s a generational thing.  I am somewhat older than Analisa, and we grew up with different celebrities and artists - and since her point of view as a Newley neophyte has been expressed, I would like to offer mine as an Anthony aficionado.  You see, as with many celebrities in the annals of entertainment, there came a point at which Anthony Newley drifted from the main spotlight into a smaller one.   That was followed by his death at the far-too-early age of sixty-seven.  These days, he is all but forgotten by one generation, and fondly cherished by another.  But there was a man named Anthony Newley and he was one of the biggest stars in the world, a prolific artist, and renaissance man who acted, wrote, composed, directed, and produced (leave us not forget his extreme popularity on the game show circuit of the Nineteen Seventies).  She was also (and this is really important) a close friend of Goldie Dver’s… and that is where the perfection begins.

Tribute shows are a tried-and-true part of the cabaret artform.  Many are the artists that create them, the clubs that present them, and the cabaret seasons that list them by the dozens.  Some are good, some are not-so-good, and some are just as they should be.  What makes a tribute show just as it should be is a personal connection to the honoree.  What did the artist mean to the performer?  What effect did the composer have on the actor?  What mark did the performer leave on the life of the person at the microphone?  Are you just going to stand on stage and sing a bunch of songs by a famous singer because someone suggested it?  Or are you going to tell a story that will touch the hearts of the people in the seats out front?  It is through the touching of the hearts that artists leave their most lasting impressions.   With her Anthony Newley tribute show, Goldie Dver touches hearts by opening hers, as well as her book of memories.

Spectacularly crafted with her longtime collaborator and show director James Beaman (inarguably one of the best directors working in cabaret today), Goldie Dver has written a play - a memory play during which she maps out her nine-year friendship with the man who wrote “Candy Man,” from their first meeting to his dying day.  Dver has anecdotes about adventures, musings about music, and an Anthony Newley impression that left her November 1st audience howling with laughter.  An actress and cabaret performer possessing of a wealth of experience, Goldie has created a show that is both theatrical (theatricality and Newley went hand-in-hand) and personal (discussions of his cancer battle play like a talk over tea), that is economic of chit chat, when it needs to be, and generous of details, when it’s warranted.  She keeps the presentational moments of the show in the light and in the dark, while reaching out to audience members and looking into their eyes, when human connection is paramount.  She can, point of fact, not put a foot wrong.  She even caps the show at a tidy fifty-three minutes, ideal cabaret length.  All of the ingredients are there for a letter-perfect cabaret show, and that’s why it is perfect: every aspect of cabaret creation has been taken into consideration and carefully observed. But at the end of the day, it is about the art and the heart, and that’s where Goldie Dver lives.

Dver has a theatrical voice, rich and reedy, full of vibrato and technique, emotion and gravel, and overwhelming with life.  It isn’t always the prettiest voice, but, then, neither was Anthony Newley’s.  Life takes its tolls on our bodies and our muscles.  There were bumps along the way for Mr. Newley and there have been some for Ms. Dver, so there are occasional notes that she has to really reach for - and guess what?  She makes them.  She gets it done and she sounds good.  More to the point, though, is that there isn’t a moment she is not in, and to the fullest.  Her interpretive skills and her acting prowess are both front and center, and it is impossible to watch the show without silently acknowledging that to one's self.  Thanks to impressive arrangements by Musical Director Dan Pardo, Goldie is able to sing Newley compositions like “I’ve Got a Golden Ticket” (from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory) and “Nothing Can Stop Me Now!” (from The Roar of the Greasepaint The Smell of the Crowd) in her own way, which doesn’t only pay tribute to Newley, it pays tribute to Dver.  Goldie is a storyteller, she is not a mimic, and she must tell the stories in song in the manner that comes organically to her, even when honoring another famous storyteller.  In this one-hour (ish) show, she manages to sing seventeen songs that Anthony Newley either wrote, co-wrote, arranged, or performed, all in the Dver style.  Some of the songs were from his career as a pop singer, some from his Broadway leading man days, and some from his film explorations  Two songs from the Willy Wonka movie are delivered and one from Scrooge, even though Newley, himself, did not appear in these films.  His contribution to the projects were as a songwriter, not an actor.  With each and every song performed, Ms. Dver immerses herself in the story proper (a devastatingly emotional “I Do Not Love You” is an evening highlight), but once out of the musical moment, the Anthony and Goldie show resumes, and the reminiscences are sublimely and frankly shared.  There is no pretense, even inside of Dver’s show-womanship.  She shares the stories as freely and joyfully as she would if you were sitting with her in the piano bar having a cocktail.  That can only be done with meticulous writing and rehearsal - it takes a lot of practice to be spontaneous and Goldie Dver has done her work, right down to penning new lyrics to the song “Thank You Very Much” so that she can, properly, call out everyone who helped with the production - it’s one of the best cabaret thank you moments of all time, and the people she thanks are deserving of the call-out.  Goldie is aided mightily by her band (see their names below, please) all of whom are playing at a very high vibration, as well as her movement director, Ann Cooley, who helped make “Who Can I Turn To” into one of the most effective and appropriate performances in a cabaret show, ever, especially for those lucky audience members who know and remember the Anthony Newley canon.

And for those who don’t know the Anthony Newley legacy, WHAT A MAN! is a perfect way to make a start, to get to know a once legendary talent and, perhaps, fall a little bit in love, and not just with Newley, but with Goldie Dver, too.  When the show circles back around for more performances, I urge everyone to get a Goldie ticket.  What a woman and what a show.

The WHAT A MAN! band is John Miller on Bass, Chip Fabrizi on Drums, and Dan Pardo Musical Directing (and singing) from the Piano, and they are all wonderful.

The WHAT A MAN! lighting/sound designer/tech director is Kelly Wohlford.

Look for future performances of WHAT A MAN! and other great shows on the Don’t Tell Mama website HERE.

Visit the Goldie Dver website HERE.

All photos by Conor Weiss

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