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Paolo Szot
August 13, 2013
54 Below – August 5-11
Having appreciated Brazilian-born operatic bass-baritone Paulo Szot’s Tony-winning performance as Emile de Becque in the New York revival of South Pacific several seasons ago, I anticipated his engagement at 54 Below with enthusiasm. I hoped he would use his celebrated vocal prowess in a sensitive manner in the intimacy of a cabaret setting. Unfortunately, I found the evening disappointing.
Szot began the show from the back of the room, then strolled to the stage singing “Summertime” (George Gershwin, Dubose Heyward) from Porgy and Bess. This ploy was the first suggestion that Szot and director Joe Langworth had patterned the program after an old-school casino-style nightclub act.
“Summertime” turned out to be the short first part of a dog-days-of-summer pairing as Szot segued into Cole Porter’s “Too Darn Hot,” with special lyrics that acknowledged the coolness (literal and figurative) of 54 Below. The down-and-dirty arrangement here was played by a combo led by musical director and pianist Matthew Aucoin and featuring bassist David Finck and percussionist Dave Ratajczak. This version of “Too Darn Hot” sounded like something written for an early-1970s Vegas gig. Szot sometimes mumbled lyrics, as Elvis Presley was wont to do in those years. For instance, the words “with my baby tonight” came out of Szot’s mouth more than once as “whim baby nigh.” I’m not sure whether this effect was due to a language barrier or whether Szot was in fact paying homage to the King.
It’s more than a bit absurd that a man who’s been trained to sing without electronic amplification in gargantuan opera houses should use a microphone to sing in a much smaller venue like 54 Below—and Szot, understandably, seemed out of his element being wired for sound in close quarters. It was a little like using the Hubble telescope to check out what’s going on in the back yard. Szot’s extremely deep voice was, of course, impressively thunderous. But it sounded heavy throughout the evening, except on a couple of the quieter ballads, notably “Nature Boy” (eden ahbez) and “Too Many Mornings” (Stephen Sondheim), on both of which Szot seemed—for a change—more interested in interpreting the material than in turning in a slick performance.
Most of the time, though, Szot was all show. He seemed to have eagerly embraced the image of a sexy, testosterone-driven virtuoso. His onstage demeanor was often suggestive of Welsh pop icon Tom Jones, whose simmering sexuality famously caused various undergarments to be volleyed to the stage. This was especially the case here on Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse’s “What Kind of Fool Am I?” (with a funky roadhouse-flavored arrangement) and Burton Lane and E.Y. Harburg’s seductive “Old Devil Moon.”
Early in the program Szot noted that his set would consist of Broadway songs, American Songbook standards, and worldwide pop hits. This is a wide range, to say the least. In a nod to 54 Below’s current celebration of Brazilian music, he offered two medleys of samba/bossa nova classics. Of the two, I preferred his set of Carlos Antonio Jobim standards, which began dreamy and slow and worked its way to a frantic pace.
Despite—or maybe because of—his bull-like bravado, Szot didn’t seem fully at ease with the china-closet intimacy of a club setting, and not just because of the aforementioned amplification issue. His between-songs patter was perfunctory, consisting mostly of “My next song is…” introductions. His one attempt at a humorous novelty number—a medley of Broadway songs with non-American accents—involved a setup in which Szot had some awkwardly acted exchanges with Aucoin, whose musical cues repeatedly tried to bring the singer back to de Becque. Such clowning seemed a bit labored.
However, this medley did suggest that there is more for Szot to accomplish on Broadway, perhaps in the roles of Tevye the Milkman and Cervantes/Don Quixote. When he sang snippets of their character songs, he seemed relatively loose and at ease. Maybe the musical-theatre stage—and not the cabaret club—remains the best vehicle for bringing Szot’s operatic talents to the ears of pop-music audiences.
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.
Having appreciated Brazilian-born operatic bass-baritone Paulo Szot’s Tony-winning performance as Emile de Becque in the New York revival of South Pacific several seasons ago, I anticipated his engagement at 54 Below with enthusiasm. I hoped he would use his celebrated vocal prowess in a sensitive manner in the intimacy of a cabaret setting. Unfortunately, I found the evening disappointing.