Review: Phillip Officer Amazes In YOU FASCINATE ME SO at Birdland Theater

During his September 24th show at Birdland Theater, Phillip Officer referenced Bobby Short.  It was apropos to the proceedings because Phillip Officer possesses a quality that was also present whenever the legendary pianist and crooner appeared in nightclubs around New York City.  Both men, one a legendary cabaret artist and one a would-be icon of the same industry, embody, completely, the elegance and sophistication that one should find in the cabaret rooms of New York City.  Ok, yes, this is 2024 and the cabaret art form has broadened out to include young upstarts who sing rock and roll, and Broadway divas who feel comfortable dropping the F-Bomb mid-performance, and all of those artists are welcome.  Boy, are they welcome because cabaret should be about a wide range of acts and styles, of artistry and humanity, and everyone should go in search of all of the different rooms and performers in the city - it would be something akin to a Twenty-first-century journey down the Yellow Brick Road.  But there once was a cabaret scene that was refined and fashionable where one could catch acts like Bobby Short and Peggy Lee, Mel Tormé and Nancy Wilson, a cabaret scene that captured and nurtured New York nightlife with sparkling wit, glittering audience members, cosmopolitan conversation, and intelligent (underline it!) performances.  On Tuesday night at Birdland, that’s what the audience got.

Phillip Officer was an up-and-coming cabaret star of the Nineteen Nineties, a musical theater actor who occasionally tread the boards of the Great White Way but whose name was becoming synonymous with the art form of cabaret.  And then one day, Phillip Officer walked away.  He spent fifteen years on hiatus, making a new, a different, a more down-to-earth life for himself.  In 2022, Phillip Officer boarded a plane from Las Vegas, came to New York, and returned to cabaret, at Birdland, in a show that BroadwayWorld Cabaret’s Ricky Pope praised HERE.  Phillip Officer has been back in business ever since, thank goodness, and what a joy it is to have these opportunities to see him in action, once more, displaying his wealth of knowledge about the art form and the history, especially with his new show YOU FASCINATE ME SO.

You Fascinate Me So has a sub-title:  Phillip Officer Salutes Mabel Mercer.  Now, if I’m being honest, I don’t love shows with two titles.  I do tend to prefer shows that go BAM! and get you with a shortie… but I’m not mad about Phillip Officer’s lengthy show title, and do you know why?  Because of Miss Mercer.  I’d like to say ‘Because of Mabel’ but I never knew Miss Mercer, and that would be improper of me - attention must be paid.  Phillip Officer may call her Mabel because, as he outlines in his show, cabaret impresario Donald Smith (of the Mabel Mercer Foundation) educated Young Master Officer about the woman who was one of the architects of cabaret, an artist who placed particular emphasis on the lyrics and on the storytelling, which is much more difficult than you might think, and far less prevalent than you might think, too (*ahem*).  Through Mr. Smith’s tutelage, Phillip Officer became a devotee, indeed a cognoscente, of Miss Mercer’s work, and all of that dedication to the Lady is what he has brought to the stage with his new show.  

Tribute shows often feel like a history lesson.  Snore.  We’ve all been to those.  You can tell that the singer has no personal associations with the singer, no discernible connection, perhaps not even any passion for the singer.  They just thought (or someone advised) that a tribute show to a famous artist might be a good idea - name recognition and all that jazz, you know?  Meh.  How unimaginative.  With Phillip Officer on the stage talking about Mabel Mercer, you get a succinct, alluring, informative, and admiring look into a lady who was, after all, a legend, and it never feels like a Wikipedia entry or a Learning Annex class because Phillip Officer adores his subject.  Success.  Mr. Officer simply shares information that he knows (not that he learned for the occasion) about a person or a subject that ignites his interest.  Well, that’s exciting.  Listening to someone talk about something that excites them is exciting, whether you’re at a wedding learning that your table companions’ favorite movies are Speed and Mrs. Doubtfire or at Birdland, learning what aspects of Phillip Officer’s ardor for Mabel Mercer rise to the occasion.  As an orator, Mr. Officer is a charmer.  

As a singer, Mr. Officer is a Master.

Phillip Officer has a most beautiful sound.  You could listen to him all day - live or on Spotify.  It is a pleasure to hear him sing.  And that’s that.  But even with a beautiful voice, a storyteller must interpret the lyrics, and Phillip Officer is an interpreter, he is a storyteller, all of which is seemly, since he does remark on Mabel Mercer’s insistence on putting the story in the lyrics.  For one hour and fifteen minutes, that is exactly what Phillip Officer did.  He painted pictures with his beautiful voice and interpretive skills, and impressively.  There are others who try to do this with their lyrics and delivery (and let’s give them a round of applause) but they aren’t Phillip Officer.   There is much to be learned by those singers from Phillip Officer and it can be learned for the rock-bottom price of a show and a couple of cocktails at Birdland.  Observe the pith employed for “I’m Glad I’m Not Young Anymore” (delicious!) and the tenderness tied to (a sublime) “Isn’t It a Pity?” that could make you cry a little, but tears of comfort.  There is a jaunty “You Fascinate Me So” and a wistful “Why Did I Choose You?” (backed beautifully by Kevin Kuhn’s guitar) that not only show off Mabel Mercer’s wide range of musical material, they showcase Phillip Officer’s dexterity in styles.  And on the subject of the band members, you could just die over Mollie Rose’s luscious contributions on the violin and sigh over visceral reactions to Jonathan Michel’s bass, but there should be a special spotlight on the magnificent Mark Hartman who has created new arrangements for these classics that make you hold your breath (just like his piano playing).  The Hartman/Officer collaboration has yielded thrilling treatments of nearly every composition but on Tuesday there were evening highlights of  “By Myself,”  “Lazy Afternoon” and “Down in the Depths on the Ninetieth Floor” that would impress even the most erudite lover of The Great American Songbook.  For this songbook aficionado, there were special moments in Officer’s performance of “Ballad of The Sad Young Man” (breathtaking) and a lilting performance of “In Other Words” (ok, ok, “Fly Me To The Moon”) that featured a testimonial to Mercer from the man who made the tune famous, Frank Sinatra.  Not only is Phillip Officer a great performer, he knows how to write and structure his cabaret show (he tells his audience he had an assist from Broadway songwriter Bill Russell). The "Fly Me To The Moon" presentation was a chic way to end what is, quite literally, a letter-perfect night of cabaret, and also a fine reminder of how lucky we all are that Phillip Officer decided to come out of retirement.  May he stay on our stages for years to come, fascinating us the way that Mabel Mercer has fascinated him, all these years.

The YOU FASCINATE ME SO team are:

Phillip Officer on vocals

Mark Hartman on Piano as Musical Director

Jonathan Michel on Bass

Mollie Rose on Violin

Kevin Kuhn on Guitar.

Bill Russell acting as creative consultant from The Director’s Chair.

Visit the Phillip Officer website HERE

Find great shows to see on the Birdland website HERE.
Bill Russell is at Birdland on September 30th with Lillias White, Alice Ripley, Erin Davie and Charity Angél Dawson.  Tickets can be accessed HERE.

Photos by Stephen Mosher

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