Charles West

December 3, 2011

“Feeling Good”

Don’t Tell Mama  –  November 16, 17, 23, December 8, 15

When Charles West steps onto the Don’t Tell Mama stage and delivers his first song, you may think: Geez, isn’t he just a little too much? West is suave and self-possessed. He has chiseled good looks and he’s full of sexy growls. That opening number, Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley’s “Feeling Good,” provides the title for West’s show—and why not? If we all looked like he does, we’d likely be feeling good, too. Even the name “West” seems right. The guy is a Marlboro Man minus the tar and nicotine. A little later in the evening we learn that he once posed in his skivvies for an ad that graced Times Square (which I imagine pulled some attention away from that neighborhood’s resident guitar-slinger, the Naked Cowboy).

West’s voice is a polished baritone. It’s smooth and rich, and when he sings a slow, boogie-woogie-ish rendition of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s “Something’s Coming,” it’s clear that he has some versatility. But will we be able to take a whole hour of the peacock-proud slickness? To the rescue comes a very smart and well-timed change of pace. West launches into the quintessential booming Broadway baritone number, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’.” Only in this case it’s a parody version with lyrics by the show’s director, Mark Hawbecker: “Oh, What a Beauty My Voice Is.” Here West lampoons his own tendency to hold on to those deep, gorgeous notes a few seconds too long. At one point in the song, West declares, “I’m a bitch, but who cares when you’re handsome?”

To leap from his own pedestal at this early point in the show is a bit risky. Will the audience be able to take seriously anything West does afterward, especially anything with a dashingly Howard Keel-ian slant? For me, though, the number had a defusing effect. Knowing that West can laugh about his Matinee Idol trappings allowed me to relax and see what else he was capable of doing. West reminded me a bit of Lyle Waggoner, that studly good sport from the old Carol Burnett show.

A cluster of Broadway ballads arrives next, including a sweetly earnest version of Lerner and Loewe’s “On the Street Where You Live.” Then West shares excerpts from an upcoming project called Jerry Orbach: It’s Nice to Remember and speaks about his admiration for, and his degrees of separation from, Orbach. (Currently West is standby for the role of El Gallo in Off Broadway’s The Fantasticks, a part that Orbach created in 1960.) The opening number from the Orbach sequence is a clever, well-executed pairing of “Lullaby of Broadway” (Harry Warren, Al Dubin) and “Razzle Dazzle” (Kander & Ebb). The first song idealizes the Shubert Alley mystique, while the second song deconstructs it, admitting that the “hip hooray and ballyhoo” are created by sleight of hand.

As the Orbach salute progresses, show tunes brimming with willful determination predominate, including “Promises Promises” (Burt Bacharach, Hal David) and, as part of another medley, “I Can See It” (Tom Jones, Harvey Schmidt) and “Luck Be a Lady” (Frank Loesser). On the latter song, West doesn’t coax or cajole Lady Luck, but instead seems to be barking orders at her. So it’s a relief when—after a Cotton Club-ish, cool-dude rendition of Brian Setzer’s “Stray Cat Strut”—West serves up the soft, dreamlike ballad “I See Your Face Before Me” (Dietz & Schwartz). At the performance I attended, when the swoony number finally came to rest, one member of the audience responded with what sounded like a post-coital “My!” I wish there were more such quietly jazzy turns in West’s show. As good as he can be in full Goulet gear, I like even better what he does when it’s Tormé time.

For his encore, West takes over the piano from musical director Steven Ray Watkins and accompanies himself ably on Jones and Schmidt’s “Try to Remember.” His heartfelt rendition of the Fantasticks song provides a sweet sign-off to his very welcome New York cabaret debut.

 

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About the Author

Mark Dundas Wood is an arts/entertainment journalist and dramaturg. He began writing reviews for BistroAwards.com in 2011. More recently he has contributed "Cabaret Setlist" articles about cabaret repertoire. Other reviews and articles have appeared in theaterscene.net and clydefitchreport.com, as well as in American Theatre and Back Stage. As a dramaturg, he has worked with New Professional Theatre and the New York Musical Theatre Festival. He is currently literary manager for Broad Horizons Theatre Company.