Judy Kaye Shines at CENTERSTAGE in Opening of Cabaret Series

Judy Kaye should name her cabaret act at CENTERSTAGE "Let Me Entertain You" and does she ever.

She has won the Tony Award for her performance of Carlotta Giudicelli in  The Phantom of the Opera and has achieved two Tony nominations for her roles as Florence Foster Jenkins in Souvenir (performed at Center Stage last year), and as Rosie in Mamma Mia!,

It is a rare opportunity to see Kaye display her incredible talent. The setting is the Head Theater which has been transformed into a six level night club with tables for your drinks (the bar is opened during the entire performance which features wine from $5-$18 and unusual beers for $8).

Accompanying Kaye on stage on the Kawai black grand piano (the same one used in  Souvenir) is the incomparable Dennis Buck.

Kaye wore a black top and slacks with a sparkling coat of many colors. She  presented a kaleidoscope of music mainly from the song book of Harold Arlen under the direction of David Green.

She began her non-stop 60 minute set with "I Got the World on a String" which ended with a lovely bit of scat singing. Next was the classic "You'll Never Know".

Kaye said she owed it to the audiences of CENTERSTAGE to sing a little bit better than her atonal turn in Souvenir. And she shocked the crowd with the Arlen number written for Groucho Marx "Lydia" which demonstrated Kaye's incredible comedic abilities.

"Out of This World" and the classic "Come Rain or Come Shine" followed.

Kaye was huge fan of Fanny Brice. She nailed a song Brice performed with a Yiddish inflection, the hysterical "Sheik of Avenue B" which included a Tevye-like dance.

In 1927, Cole Porter wrote a song for Brice's show at the Palace Theater. Brice found out Nick Arnstein (remember the film "Funny Girl"?) was in the audience and was not able to sing "Weren't We Fools". Thankfully, Kay was able to sing this gorgeous song.

Porter was also the composer of another funny little ditty (which he wrote for himself), "The Tale of the Oyster".

Laced throughout the evening were little anecdotes about Kaye's career. Who can forget her singing the first 16 bars of "Think of Me" in The Phantom of the Opera. She recalled her role in Ragtime and her desire to sing the big number at the end. Well, her rendition of "Back to Before" by the brilliant composers Aherns and Flaherty is worth the price of admission.

Kaye then turned the show over to Dennis Buck who offered to play a five-minute compilation of tunes picked by the audience. Kaye wrote the ten suggestions on a board.

Buck astonished the audience combining such numbers as "Summertime" "Rhapsody in Blue", "Fly Me to the Moon", "Shalom" (from Milk and Honey), "Oklahoma", "Someone to Watch Over Me", and "Rose's Turn" (from Gypsy). It was amazing.

Kaye returned to a classic "Old Black Magic" with a lovely cadenza by Buck. Two Arlen songs that many in the audience were not familiar with were "Right as the Rain" and "The Man That Got Away".

And, of course, one cannot avoid Stephen Sondheim. Kaye sang the little-performed "I Never Do Anything Twice" from the film "The 7% Solution".

Following a standing ovation, Kaye returned with probably the most famous Arlen song "Over the Rainbow" which she performed without a microphone. And what a way to end the show!! I asked her following her performance why she chose to sing it without amplification. She stated, "It's nice sometimes to hear what the human voice sounds like without a microphone".  And she's correct.

I suggest CENTERSTAGE insert information on Kaye and Buck in the program and to recognize those technicians who make the Head Theater's acoustics so incredible and the lighting so affective.

Kudos to the new Hotel Monaco (in the historic B&O Building in downtown Baltimore) for their assistance.

The short stay at Center Stage continues with performances Saturday night, Oct. 17 at 8 p.m. and Sunday afternoon, Oct. 18 at 2 p.m. For tickets, 410-332-0033 or visit www.centerstage.org.

The line-up for the remainder of the CENTERSTAGE Cabaret:

Euan Morton (Nov. 12-15)

E. Faye Butler (Feb. 11-14)

Tracie Thoms & Friends (Apr. 29-May 2).

 For comments, write to cgshubow@broadwayworld.com.

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