Review: KAREN MASON AND ALL THAT JAZZ! Has Pizzazz at 54 Below

As Karen Mason brought a hush to the room with the final number in her cabaret show celebrating the release of her new all-Kander & Ebb recording, bits of the lyric hit me as references to what the audience experienced earlier in the evening:  

"When it all comes true/  Just the way you'd planned"  ….>>> (It was a successful, satisfying, well-planned act) 

"It's funny but the bells don't ring." ….>>> (This rang a bell, reminding me of her fun rendition of “Ring Them Bells”) 

"It's a quiet thing./ When you hold the world in your trembling hand."    ….>>> (It was the rapt audience she held in her non-trembling hand, with her strong ability to connect)

"You'd think you'd hear a choir sing." ….>>> (Many listening, smiling in recognition of the famous songs, could have been a sing-along choir if the arrangements and tempi had been the same-old/same-old, instead of refreshingly surprising)  

"It's a quiet thing./  There are no exploding fireworks./ Where's the roaring of the crowds?"   ….>>> (The receptive crowd had, in fact, been roaring its approval since the robust welcome at her entrance)

"Maybe it's the strange new atmosphere way up here among the clouds."   ….>>> (Well, we were beneath street level at the aptly named 54 Below, but it felt more like we were dreamily floating on air) 

"But I don't hear the drums and I don't hear the band/ The sounds I'm told such moments bring."   ….>>>(This show had no drums and no band — just the excellent Christopher Denny on piano, and that was more than sufficient and rich) 

"Happiness comes in on tip-toe/  Well, what'ya know: /It's a quiet thing. A very quiet thing."  ….>>> (While many cabaret acts typically end with a big, belted, forceful finale, and Karen Mason has those chops, the choice of the mesmerizingly gentle “A Quiet Thing” instead of a loud thing was a good thing.)  

During the program, the singer spoke fondly of performing in the 1991 off-Broadway five-person revue And the World Goes ’Round, consisting of songs by composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb.  Several of those (which she and/or her 1991 castmates had performed and recorded for a cast album) made the set list for 54 Below — just as they did in her earlier cabaret appearances featuring the writers’ oeuvre, and the new recording. It’s called Karen Mason and All That Jazz, a reference to “All That Jazz,” used as this night’s socko opening number.  Her act’s running schtick was to hold up the disc and coyly, cutely comment each time: “Did I mention that I have a new CD?”  It was for sale at the venue, and how could happy customers resist the disc that puts on display dazzling and different vivid vocal colors, from the sorrowful “My Coloring Book” to “Colored Lights”?  

Like the best of cabaret performers, lyrics weren’t just sung – they were acted. This involved nuance, subtle pauses, facial expressions that showed immersion in the story of a song. Mason's menu du jour veered from the festival of Kander & Ebb about midway through with four consecutive items representing this singer-actor’s Broadway career. Her debut on the Great White Way, a show that had a series of previews and then had an official opening night that was also its closing night. This disappointment was addressed with healed-wounds hindsight humor and the lively title song of "Play Me a Country Song" was indeed one worth dusting off.  Addressing the desire for a career on Broadway brought a combination of “On Broadway” and the on-topic “Broadway Baby” wherein both pieces gained gravitas, being granted higher stakes, with slower-than-usual tempi, sighs, and restraint. It’s a quiet thing.  

When the anthem of the genre, “Cabaret,” popped up, telling us that “Life is a cabaret, old chum,” the very familiar show tune was personalized with extra words first sung when Ms. Mason received a Lifetime Achievement Award for her years in cabaret.  It rhymed Ebb’s phrase “old chum” with “two-drink minimum.” Her “old chums” Christopher Denny (musical director for 33 years) and her director Barry Kleinbort were on board as usual and their special arrangements make for an especially polished and rock-solid show.  And now Karen Mason is off to her former home turf, Chicago, for more of the same at Davenport’s.

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For more on the singer, see her website www.karenmason.com. (You can buy her albums there, too.)

Find more upcoming shows at 54 Below on their website at www.54below.org

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