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“Take Me As I Am”
Metropolitan Room – June 6, 7, 13, 14
In “Take Me As I Am”—billed as “a witty & opinionated look at Joni Mitchell on relationships”— Elaine St. George performs a spate of songs written by or otherwise associated with Mitchell. Some selections were penned by Mitchell’s romantic partners (Graham Nash, James Taylor). And, in one case, a song is featured that is not in any way connected with Mitchell but, in St. George’s estimation, should be. That’s Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer’s “Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home,” which, St. George suggests, heralds the “free and easy” components of Mitchell’s character that are sometimes overlooked. (Fragments of Mitchell songs “California” and “Carey” are sampled in this arrangement of the familiar standard).
What St. George clearly appreciates about Mitchell is not her penchant for writing forlorn, soul-scourging confessional songs but rather the no-nonsense aspects of her approach to love. St. George hails Mitchell’s talent for knowing exactly what she’s about, taking care of business, getting out while the getting is good, and taking responsibility for her choices.
It’s a fitting approach for St. George, who takes a straightforward, conversational approach to cabaret performance. Early on in the evening I saw the show, she compared a cabaret show to a cocktail party at which you’re meeting a lot of strangers. You don’t begin the evening by blurting out your deepest, most intimate secrets to all the guests. St. George gets to the heavier stuff in Mitchell’s canon, but she does so at her own pace.
St. George is known for presenting familiar songs in new and surprising light—something she does right out of the gate here—giving Mitchell’s hit “Big Yellow Taxi” a country-swing treatment. Her musicians—pianist and music director Ross Patterson, bassist Adam Armstrong, and violist Karen Waltuch—make a fine impression from the outset. In particular, Waltuch’s fiddle-style viola phrasings lend the “Taxi” arrangement a graceful yet sprightly energy.
Next up is an agreeably jazzy version of Mitchell’s “Be Cool.” This song also focuses on the jauntier rather than jaundiced side of Joni. (“Don’t get jealous/ Don’t get over-zealous,” the lyrics advise.) But then St. George begins a musical exploration of Mitchell’s relationships with Nash and with Taylor, and things get more complicated. Her reading of “A Simple Man” (which Nash wrote upon learning that Mitchell had left him) is beautifully rendered: sad, subdued and full of yearning.
Listening to her performance of “Cactus Tree,” I found myself appreciating the particular skill sets St. George brings to a song. Hers is not a singing voice in which every passage resonates with shimmering beauty. She clearly recognizes both her vocal weaknesses and her strengths, using both to advantage. She’ll soldier through some of the rangier passages, at times nearly talk-singing them, but then she’ll hit certain words and phrases with lovely legit-voice precision. On “Cactus Tree,” for instance, she does this, very appealingly, with the word “eternity.”
St. George’s “cocktail party” has now progressed to the point where deeper, more sensitive subjects can be broached. By the time she gets to the well-known “Both Sides Now,” the audience has been pulled into her circle of intimacy. St. George begins by admitting that she hated this song when she first heard it—she found it sugary and facile. But she concedes that she and Mitchell both grew into the number with the passage of time. Instead of singing the song with the usual attitude of wistful resignation—gracefully giving in to the notion that one can never fully understand clouds or love or life—St. George sings the number with gradually increasing anger. She is ticked off by the clouds, disgruntled with love, and enraged by life. The arrangement builds to a shattering finish. It’s a performance I won’t soon forget.
She returns to a country-tinged sound for Mitchell’s “Help Me,” slowing the song down to a languid pace during its bridge: It’s another appealingly fresh interpretation. Unfortunately, on some later selections—”The Hissing of Summer Lawns” and the closer, “Night Ride Home”—St. George’s pipes don’t quite do full justice to the sweeping, winding, intricate melodies; her total commitment to the material, however, is never in question.
In sum, “Take Me As I Am” is a successful evening of music. The intelligence St. George uses in her song selection and the care with which she and Patterson package the songs, prove both admirable and impressive.
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.
