REVIEWS
Music's masters meet on Monday
By Howard Reich
Chicago Tribune critic
July 16 2008
By now, capacity audiences have become the norm for the "Musical Mondays" cabaret series at Drury Lane Theatre Water Tower Place.
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Drury Lane in full bloom
Cabaret celebration of Clooney dazzles
By Howard Reich
Tribune critic
May 21, 2008
With the performers in fine voice and the repertoire top-notch, it was a very good night for cabaret in Chicago...
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Drury Lane brings jazz, cabaret back into vogue
By Howard Reich
TRIBUNE CRITIC
February 17, 2008
Tony Bennett attracted throngs. Ella Fitzgerald swung like crazy. Pearl Bailey shook the room with a voice so huge you almost could hear it on Michigan Avenue.
But since 1984, Drury Lane Theatre Water Tower Place has been silent -- at least so far as concerts are concerned. When the legendary Chicago impresario Tony De Santis closed his opulent theater, which had been operating since the summer of 1976, it appeared as if one of the most glamorous rooms in local music would be consigned to the history books, once and for all.
The sacred space that jazz giants such as Louie Bellson, Lena Horne and Buddy Rich had graced would feature living, breathing art no more. Instead, the theater was reconfigured to show movies. Even Drury Lane's high-profile reopening in remodeled quarters, in 2005, heralded the return of live theater to the celebrated address but made no room for jazz and cabaret.
Until now.
Come Monday evening, Drury Lane and a dynamic non-profit arts group -- Chicago Cabaret Professionals -- will partner to bring live music back to 175 E. Chestnut St., half a block from the bustle of North Michigan Avenue. Though the sprawling revue "My Fair Cabaret: The Music of Loesser, Lerner and Loewe" (with a cast of about 20 performers) will play just one night, it's poised to launch a new concert era at Drury Lane.
'Musical Mondays'
If all goes as planned, a forthcoming series of "Musical Mondays on the Magnificent Mile" will bring various cabaret shows to the theater, with appearances by local and visiting solo musicians possibly in the offing, as well, say Drury Lane officials. And though musical plays, such as the current "Altar Boyz," will remain the central attraction at Drury Lane, concerts are on the horizon.
"I think it's something that would be great to have in this neighborhood," explains Kyle De Santis, Tony De Santis' grandson and now president of Drury Lane theaters at Water Tower Place and suburban Oakbrook Terrace (Tony De Santis died last year at age 93).
"It's uncharted territory for us," adds De Santis, referring to the theater's post-2005 incarnation, "but I'm hoping that it's successful, so that we can continue on in this direction.
"It's a nice location."
That's an understatement, for Drury Lane sits at the crossroads of high-end shopping, dining and tourism, a milieu rich in upscale listeners who would seem inclined to favor cabaret and jazz in an elegant setting.
A virtual vacuum
The surprise, in fact, is that the 60611 ZIP code practically has been stripped of live concerts and jazz sets (though piano-lounge fare and other forms of background music are in abundance). The 1997 demise of the Gold Star Sardine Bar, at 680 N. Lake Shore Drive; the 2006 close of the Jazz Showcase, at 59 W. Grand Ave., in preparation for its move to the South Loop; and last year's flight of singer-pianist Judy Roberts to Arizona, after engagements along North Michigan Avenue began to dry up, diminished a music that long had made the neighborhood hum.
Drury Lane enjoyed a comparatively long run -- roughly eight years -- offering live concerts (as well as straight plays and stage musicals) in an in-the-round theater that seated 1,142 but felt much smaller.
"It was very exciting, it was glamorous, it was romantic," recalls Debbie Silverman Krolik, who as Drury Lane publicist during most of those years shepherded the illustrious names around town (she has no connection to Drury Lane today).
Fond memories
"The excitement on opening night was almost overwhelming -- it was just a big deal to have these major names right here in the neighborhood. ...
"Pearl [Bailey] would be in her dressing room often times, embroidering, before she went on stage. Tony [Bennett] would be coming back from the Italian restaurant across the street, where he had dinner. ...
"And then these legendary performers, who I remembered watching on the 'Ed Sullivan Show,' would be performing just a few feet away from you in that intimate theater. ...
"Even the dressing rooms were absolutely magnificent -- they were gorgeous."
Everything about Drury Lane, from its gold-leaf wall-trim and red velour seats to its crystal chandelier glittering high above a winding staircase, exuded luxury and romance (albeit in some excess). But the steep rent, as well as a hot-and-cold box office, in 1984 prompted De Santis to abandon the place for another Drury Lane he built in Oakbrook Terrace.
And no one has had the nerve or the cash to try anything comparable on or near the Magnificent Mile ever since.
So why now?
"It's something I've had in the back of my mind for a long time," says Jim Jensen, co-producer at Drury Lane.
"Kyle [De Santis] had been talking about doing concerts and music events. I mentioned Chicago Cabaret Professionals to him, and he liked the idea."
Indeed, a partnership between Drury Lane and CCP hardly could have been better timed. The era when performers of Bennett's stature played rooms the size of Drury Lane -- which, in its new proscenium format seats just 500-plus -- has long since passed.
The biggest jazz, cabaret and classic-pop stars can earn seven figures or more playing for thousands at immense concert venues, such as the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park.
So Drury Lane needed to adjust its ambitions for modern times.
Chicago Cabaret Professionals, meanwhile, has been growing steadily since it was founded, in 1998, as an advocacy group. Since attaining 501(c)3 non-profit status in 2002, it has staged artistically striking, sold-out cabaret extravaganzas at Park West in 2006 and 2007.
But for all its successes in championing cabaret across the city, in spaces such as the Chicago Cultural Center and Davenport's, the organization yearned to set up shop in a big-time, high-visibility spot.
Potential new audience
The "My Fair Cabaret" show and those to follow could help both CCP and the fragile art form it represents to bloom anew.
"This opens up cabaret to a huge new pool of audience members," says Heather Moran, another noted Chicago cabaret singer and a CCP member.
In essence, cabaret -- like jazz -- is expanding its field of opportunities by embracing non-profit economic models. What once was a purely commercial enterprise that functioned mostly in saloons and hotel lobbies is finding new life through not-for-profit organizations and the cultural grants they can attract.
Optimism is palpable
So the latest chapter in the development of Chicago cabaret will open tomorrow. But the briskness of advance ticket sales, as well as the ambitiousness of the show -- which will feature such Chicago cabaret stars as Joan Curto and Tom Michael -- has generated palpable optimism among Chicago musicians.
If the venture succeeds, the texture of Chicago's musical life, as well as the rhythms of its most high-toned neighborhood, will be changed.
"There is a hunger for this kind of music, but there have been no real venues for it downtown," says Silverman Krolik.
"If you are going out and want to have a romantic evening, are you going to listen to Amy Winehouse singing 'Rehab'?
"There's a desire for something else, and I think that if it is placed on the table, people would come and eat it up."
We'll find out soon enough.
- - -
Mondays get musical
"My Fair Cabaret: The Music of Loesser, Lerner and Loewe" will present one act each devoted to the music of Frank Loesser, and to Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe. Singers will include Joan Curto, Tom Michael, Heather Moran, Daryl Nitz and Suzanne Petri, with musical direction by Beckie Menzie and Bob Moreen. Performance starts at 7:30 p.m. at Drury Lane Theatre Water Tower Place, 175 E. Chestnut St.; $25; 312-642-2000 or ticketmaster.com.
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hreich@tribune.com
Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune
New Drury Lane: Night life is a cabaret
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MUSIC REVIEW
New Drury Lane: Night life is a cabaret
By Howard Reich
TRIBUNE CRITIC
February 20, 2008
If live music returned to a celebrated downtown theater -- after an absence of 24 years -- would anyone show up?
That was the question Monday night, when a room that once pulsed with the sounds of Tony Bennett and Ella Fitzgerald made music once more. But with the temperature frozen at single digits and a new concert series trying to get off the (slippery) ground, presenters at Drury Lane Theatre Water Tower Place wondered if the house would be half empty, or worse.
They needn't have worried -- the place practically was filled. Indeed, had the weather been less hostile, extra chairs would have been needed (lobby seating, anyone?).
Clearly, Chicagoans voted with their ears on this night, which proved a milestone not only for the refurbished Drury Lane but, better still, for Chicago's growing community of cabaret performers. Produced by Chicago Cabaret Professionals, an aptly named advocacy group, the evening attested to the depth of the city's cabaret talent and its increasing savvy in promoting itself.
No longer content to stage just one-man (or one-woman) shows for small audiences in tiny rooms, cabaret artists in the past few years have banded together, presenting ambitious evenings in impressive spaces.
None of these efforts has been riskier or higher in profile than Monday's, titled "My Fair Cabaret: The Music of Loesser, Lerner and Loewe." Though Drury Lane had featured major jazz and cabaret stars in the late 1970s and early '80s, "My Fair Cabaret" had no such marquee power. Moreover, it has been more than a generation since listeners were in the habit of hearing music at Drury Lane, which started showing movies in 1984 and re-emerged as a legitimate theater in 2005.
For this listener's tastes, the remodeled Drury Lane serves music better than it did before, as an in-the-round space. When you're beholding a great singer at work, do you really want to see the galoshes of the people facing you, from the other side of the room? The new proscenium focuses attention where it belongs -- on the artists.
How and why Joan Curto came up with the idea of dispatching "Wouldn't It Be Loverly?" in a jazz context is a bit of a mystery. Yet it worked. Stripped of cockney cliches, slowed to a crawl, swathed in blues expression, the song sounded reborn.
Baritone David Edelfelt probably sounds great singing the weather forecast, he's just blessed with a luxuriant instrument. But his version of "Luck Be a Lady" produced low notes that you could get lost in.
Tom Michael implied swing rhythm in "I Hear Music"; and Heather Moran let loose with plenty of sound in "Adelaide's Lament."
If Claudia Hommel overplayed the drama in music from "My Fair Lady" and Bradford Thacker borrowed from Maurice Chevalier in songs from "Gigi," there was consolation in Laura Freeman's heady performance of "The Night They Invented Champagne."
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hreich@tribune.com
Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune
Cabaret tour de force
 Sultriness reminiscent of bygone era rules stage
By Howard Reich
Tribune arts critic
October 16, 2007
Anyone who doubted the depth or breadth of Chicago's cabaret scene should have tried to snatch a ticket to the Park West on Sunday night.
Playing before a packed house, performers funny and dark, witty and wistful, high-strung and laid-back offered a marathon tour of the cabaret singer's art. That only a small segment of this city's cabaret community could be squeezed onto the three-hour program said a great deal about the vitality of this music in Chicago.
The occasion was the annual gala organized by Chicago Cabaret Professionals, an organization that has been invaluable in sending the message that great cabaret artists are not mere lounge entertainers. When featured in an elegant listening room, the subtlety, nuance and ferocity of their best work are unmistakable.
Consider the tour de force performance of veteran jazz singer-pianist Dave Green, one of two artists who on this night received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the cabaret organization. Singing with that famously steeped-in-smoke voice and accompanying himself at the piano with a deep-blues sensibility, Green practically transformed the Park West into a South Side jazz club of an earlier era. There was a bit of Fats Waller in his ebullient version of "Please Send Me Someone to Love," yet barely a hint of Ray Charles in his slow and disarmingly idiosyncratic version of "Georgia on My Mind."
Veteran pianist Joe Vito took the evening's other Lifetime Achievement Award, but his thoroughly musical pianism proved most satisfying as accompaniment to singer Carole March, his wife. Her impeccable pitch and unpredictable phrasings argued for the enduring freshness of her work.
When singer-pianist Judy Roberts took the stage to accept the cabaret organization's first Gold Coast Award, she reaffirmed that she'll be relocating to Phoenix at the end of the year, drawing a lament from the crowd. The sly sophistication she brought to a vocalese on "Take Five" and the ethereal tone of her duet passages with Paul Marinaro on "Autumn Leaves" illuminated how much we'll be losing when she moves away.
Though the evening's indelible moments were too numerous to cite, the high points included a haunting "Angel Eyes" from Audrey Morris, a gutsy set (in the Julie Wilson mold) from Suzanne Petri and gorgeous harmonizing from 3Girls3 (Heather Moran, MaryMonica Thomas and Gail Becker).
What a night.
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hreich@tribune.com
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune
Making a connection
April 13, 2006
From an intimate nightclub to a big concert hall, a cabaret singer can light
up the night. Here are five who are doing just that READ
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