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“An Evening With Paolo Szot”
Café Carlyle – September 14 – 25
If you were asked to define a matinee idol, you could point to Paolo Szot. He’s dashing, he suggests romance, and he caresses a song with a round, resonant baritone that enriches the melodies of Broadway, Rio and the concert stage. This is the music Szot presents at the Café Carlyle in his New York cabaret debut, an evening glowing with female frisson.
Actually, his admirers, and there were many, were less interested in the Szot songbook than in just being in his proximity. Women from various parts of the country who had seen his performance as suave, cosmopolitan Emile de Becque in South Pacific at Lincoln Center were now here. Many had seen the show several times mainly because of Szot. Now they were inches away.
Szot seemed all too aware of the proximity. One overwhelmed fan grabbed his hand and kissed it, another could not stop from speaking to him in the middle of the show. Szot had no invisible fourth wall to separate him and he seems like a likeable guy, but not quite in his element. In cabaret, the energy of the audience becomes part of the show, and this seemed to make him somewhat uncomfortable.
First the patter—or lack of patter. Some personal comments are necessary to bring the audience closer to the performer, and here the show could have benefited from some comments about his background, perhaps his Polish parents’ having emigrated to Rio, the influence of Brazilian music, and why these songs are important to him. The value of cabaret is in personal connection, and without some sharing, the show looses warmth.
Szot might also work on his audience eye contact. He did not reach out to the back of the room or the far sides, but scanned the club, occasionally singing with his eyes closed. When he delivered a soft, swinging “Easy to Love” by Cole Porter, he missed an opportunity to establish a playful communication with his enraptured audience, perhaps linking eyes or flirting a little. Often, he sat on a stool facing one side, referring directly to the written lyrics. “Gigi” (Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe), for example, was compellingly rendered with gentle intent and sensitivity. Unfortunately, one half of the audience was watching his back.
Szot commented that this would be a show featuring “everything with a Brazilian touch.” The joy and passion of samba and bossa nova are infectious, and with the backing of The Bob Albanese trio, he delivered the popular, “Vou Te Contar” (“Wave”) by Antonio Carlos Jobim and “Desafinado” (“Off Key”) by Jobim and Newton Mendonça. Consuelo Velázquez’s “Bésame Mucho” and “El Dia Que Me Quieras” (“The Day You Love Me”) by Carlos Gardel and Alfredo Le Pera were a duo of tangos with palpable heat. However, there can be too much of a good thing, like an abundance of songs in Portuguese. While he delivered them with infectious rhythm and a rich emotional baritone, most people do not understand Portuguese. “Make Someone Happy” by Jule Styne, Betty Comden and Adolph Green led into “Carinhoso” (“Affectionate”) by Pixinguinha and João de Barro. Maybe they do enhance each other with relevancy, yet without knowing the language, they just sound lovely musically, and that is not quite enough. Some arrangements were also questionable: the up-tempo arrangement of Cole Porter’s “Love For Sale” was misplaced, as was Lerner & Loewe’s “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face.”
Judging from the response to Szot’s opening song, “Some Enchanted Evening” (Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II) from South Pacific, what listeners really wanted were ballads—sexy and romantic. Disappointing was “This Nearly Was Mine,” also from South Pacific, which felt restrained and not invested with the necessary heartbreak. What he did deliver with nuanced beauty was Manning Sherwin and Eric Maschwitz’s “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square.” Szot’s encore was the spotlight moment, where he seemed to pour out his heart with long, controlled lines in “If Ever I Would Leave You” (Lerner & Loewe).
Paolo Szot has a rich, emotional voice. Right now, his comfort zone is the stirring and exciting Brazilian music, but when he chooses standards or theatre songs that he knows well, the show should have more balance. Perhaps his disappointing audience connection stems from his need to adjust to the demands of an intimate space. Hopefully this talented, handsome baritone will be delivering shows that are fun for him as well for his groupies, who were still a-quiver at the end of the show, ready to toss in their keys on the stage. For them, Paolo Szot was a hit.
