Nightlife Night Life Cabaret Review: Karen Oberlin's New Show At Feinstein's At Loew's Regency.
Review: Karen Oberlin's New Show At Feinstein's At Loew's Regency.
- Details
- Published on Friday, 27 July 2012 11:48
- Written by Ron Forman
I’ll Be Hot to Handle: Songs of Daring Dames is the title of Karen Oberlin’s new show at Feinstein’s at Loew’s Regency. The show consists of an extremely well thought out and carefully planned selection of songs that celebrate feminine courage to go against what society deems normal feminine behavior. The selection of songs, by songwriters as diverse as Rodgers and Hart, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Spencer Williams, Bessie Smith, Shel Silverstein and Joni Mitchell, are tied together beautifully to create a common theme.
The show opens with Karen Oberlin very sexily dressed in black and wearing a motorcycle cap singing a very brazen version of Wives and Lovers which conveys a very different message than that of Jack Jones’ original recording. She then sings three songs that all send the same message as Eva Tanguay’s 1905 song, I Don’t Care. In addition to singing in quite a nice voice, Ms. Oberlin is a wonderful actress particularly when she does her series of songs dealing with women who are breaking out of unhappy relationships. Her medley of songs associated with brazen women such as Sophie Tucker, Mae West, Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters and Alberta Hunter begins and ends with I’m the Last of the Red Hot Mamas. Her closing number is a beautiful version Of Rodgers and Hart’s A Lady Must Live and her encore number, Remind Me, pays tribute to the greatest of all female songwriters of the Great American Songbook, Dorothy Fields. Ms Oberlin also shows her courage by standing on her head on stage at Feinstein’s.
Karen Oberlin who will be appearing at Feinstein’s at Loew’s Regency at 540 Park Avenue, until Saturday July 28, is very ably backed by her musical director Jon Weber on piano and Tom Hubbard on bass.
DATES:
Friday, Jul 27, 2012: 8:00PM
Saturday, Jul 28, 2012: 8:00PM
MAC, Bistro and Nightlife Award winning vocalist Karen Oberlin returns to Feinstein's for a week-long engagement with "I'll Be Hard to Handle: Songs of Daring Dames." Named by The New York Times as one of the "Saviors of the Great American Songbook," Oberlin has created an adventurous new show that explores feminine courage in all its forms: Songs by bold women writers, songs about dauntless women, and songs written on audacious subjects showing, in words and music, just how brave and brazen women can be. Songwriters include the inimitable Bessie Smith and her peers, Joni Mitchell, Dorothy Fields, Rodgers and Hart, Pink, and many more. As Stephen Holden wrote of Oberlin in the New York Times, "Beyond having a pretty voice, poise and interpretive insight, Oberlin is a thorough researcher." And Rex Reed, calling her "thrilling," praised Oberlin as "as lovely to look at as she is to hear." In this groundbreaking new show, Oberlin will prove once and for all why we're happy the lady is indeed, and proudly, a tramp. Jon Weber serves as musical director.
