MARILYN MAYE - A Cabaret Icon Swings Mercer

MARILYN MAYE
“Mercer The Maye Way”
Metropolitan Room – New York City

Reviewed by: Sandi "D"
June 2009


Presenting The Grand Duchess of Cabaret – Marilyn Maye. It seems the other titles are spoken for by other female performers of prominence and this one fit perfectly.

Ms. Maye has had a lengthy career having been named “one of the best singers in the business, outstanding, a super singer.” by the late great Johnny Carson. She appeared 76 times on The Tonight Show.

The cabaret community climbed aboard the Marilyn Maye train when it landed at the Mabel Mercer Convention and Metropolitan Room in 2006 and has stayed aboard the speeding locomotion created by this lady (of a certain age) who continues as an eminent teacher of the art of performing.

In a celebratory tribute to the man of words Johnny Mercer, on this 100th Centennial of his birth, Ms. Maye creates a party every time she’s on stage opening with medley “My Shining Hour,” “Too Marvelous for Words,” “Jeepers Creepers,” “Something’s Gotta Give”. . . and the audience roared. It’s a love-in as the crowd savors every morsel. She didn’t have a lot of time to put this show together, has a lot of lyrics in her head and since there’s no teleprompter, “I have a music stand” (of which she’s usually disapproved) confided Ms. Maye. No matter, the few lyric glitches only endeared her more, showing off a jewel of professionalism.

Her technique of pairing songs that compliment rhythms like “Out of this World” and “Old Black Magic” is artful and filled with passion. Relating to Mercer’s drinking, Maye quipped it was surprising they didn’t get married since all her husbands were alcoholics. It was a great set up to a medley of songs including “Drinking Again” and “One For My Baby and One More For the Road” filled with riffs and vocal maneuvers that became a theatrical wonderment. Down and dirty “Blues in the Night” continued the momentum.

Mercer wrote many female name songs like “Emily,” “Laura” and “Tangerine” as well as Academy Award winning movie songs “Moon River,” “Days of Wine and Roses” and the celebrated “On The Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe.” They all took on new meaning the Maye Way.

She swings with the best of them, particularly on favorite rhythm, the jazz/waltz as she relates to finding the much sought after Tedd Firth (her pianist) at Birdland one evening when she got up to sing “Luck Be A Lady.”

The great lyricist and great lyric interpreter Marilyn Maye shown bright “When The World Was Young.” After hearing the inexorable Ms. Maye, the question is…is there any other way but the Maye Way? Adding to the accompaniment was Tom Hubbard on bass and her drummer for 40+ years, Jim Eklof.