Perry Payne
Getting Away From It All ~ Metropolitan Room
July 1, 2, 10, 11
Just a few bars into Perry Payne’s chipper opening number, Tom Adair and Matt Dennis’s “Let’s Get Away from It All,” you know that the person on stage is charming, intelligent, in command of what she’s doing, and a damned good singer. A bit later on, you discover that she’s also very funny. And by the end of the show, you realize that in this case, early impressions can be trusted.
Especially fine is a medley of “I’m Coming Virginia” by Donald Heywood and Will Marion Cook, Beth Nielsen Chapman’s “Years,” and “American Lullaby,” a depression-era song by Gladys Rich. This poignant evocation of childhood memories is warmly enriched by musical director Michael Rice’s arrangement and by the accompaniment of Rice on piano, Ray Kilday on bass, Amy Hamilton-Soto on violin, and Gary Seligson on percussion (Danny Mallon at some performances). This is followed by Rice’s lovely “Fireflies and Shooting Stars,” which uses vivid imagery to celebrate simple joys and innocent wonder.
Payne delivers one of the best and funniest renditions of John Wallowitch’s “Bruce” I’ve ever heard; each line reading is flawless. She tells us she learned Pink’s “Glitter in the Air” just to impress her hip factor with her 16 year-old nephew; it turns out to be a very good, very affecting song about appreciating life, and Payne’s interpretation does it full justice.
However, a medley, or, more precisely, interweaving of “Do I Hear a Waltz?” and “Hello, Young Lovers” is problematic. Though the execution is technically impressive and the crowd seemed quite taken with it, it is a self-conscious arrangement rather than a coherent statement; both songs are diminished by it. The audience also went gaga over Payne’s gutsy performance of Stephen Randoy’s “He Slipped Me the Plastic,” but in this case I am in complete agreement with the vocal majority.
More work is needed on two superb songs that have proved challenging to many singers. Payne’s handling of Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “The Wave” is too robust and not sufficiently romantic or sensual. In addition, she inserts infelicitous pauses in two spots: “when I saw you first the time was [brief pause] half past three” and “when your eyes met mine it was [long pause] eternity.” I suspect the pauses are intended for dramatic emphasis, but they don’t scan. The second time through, instead of the long pause before “eternity,” she shrugs and makes a dismissive rolling gesture with her hand, which is also inapt. [A few months ago, I commented on pauses and shrugs in my column on the MAC web site, www.macnyc.com; for those who haven’t read it, or who don’t feel like changing sites, I repeat those comments below.]
The other song is Henry Mancini and Leslie Bricusse’s “Two for the Road,” which here has too prominent a beat-indeed, she even taps her hand to the rhythm; this is counter-interpretive. While an animated interpretation of this tender song might conceivably be made to work, it would have to be more thoroughly thought through.
Directed by Evan Papas, this is Payne’s first show in seven years. It would be a pity if she stayed away so long again; she’s too good. And given just a bit of tuning, so is this show.
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
Comments on pauses and shrugs
I’ve seen a number of singers occasionally insert a very slight pause before a word. This always calls attention to the word. If the singer’s objective is to highlight the importance of the word, the pause might be a valid technique-though there are typically better ways to accomplish this objective. However, even when this method is justified, it should be employed very infrequently, otherwise it can come across as a gimmick.
Most pauses I’ve seen have been ill-advised. In general, you should not interrupt a single thought with a pause. In the song “Sing Happy,” a singer inserted a pause before the word gold in the lyric “Sing me a sonnet all about rolling in gold.” This did not make sense. If a pause is to be inserted anywhere in that line, it should be before rolling, since what must have been in the mind of the person expressing the thought at that moment would have been the complete phrase rolling in gold. He would not say rolling and then have to think, “rolling in what?” When you use a pause unwisely, you convey the impression that you have not thought through your interpretation.
I witnessed a worse example more recently. In an otherwise superb rendition of “Gigi,” a singer paused for what seemed like an eternity, but must have been about five seconds, between “have I been standing up too close” and “or back too far?” What on earth could the person expressing the thought have been pausing for? Would he have been trying to think of the apt alternative to standing up too close—say, were my glasses smudged? or do I have to reduce my medication? Nonsense! He would not have begun the first thought without knowing the alternative. Or perhaps he was meant to be lost in a reverie of suddenly realized love. Whatever, although the singer tried to fill the pause with bits of acting, it did not wash.
I have frequently seen pauses accompanied by a shrug. This almost always conveys the impression that you are tentative, unsure-that you have not yet decided what position to take with that particular lyric. What’s more, a pause-shrug combination diminishes the importance, the weight, of what you are saying at that moment. .In rare instances, a shrug can be an appropriate gesture, but it must be specifically right for the moment and needs to be expressed with purpose and conviction. Similarly, holding your arms limply outstretched with your palms up, even without a pause, generally weakens the persuasiveness of your interpretation. Such a stance can be taken, but only when done purposefully and emphatically.
About the Author
Roy Sander has been covering cabaret and theatre for over thirty years. He’s written cabaret and theatre reviews, features, and commentary for seven print publications, most notably Back Stage, and for CitySearch on the Internet. He covered cabaret monthly on “New York Theatre Review” on PBS TV, and cabaret and theatre weekly on WLIM-FM radio. He was twice a guest instructor at the London School of Musical Theatre. A critic for BistroAwards.com, he is also the site’s Reviews Editor; in addition, he is Chairman of the Advisory Board of MAC.