What’s it like growing up in a family of off-beat, bohemian entertainers? We are allowed to peek in to such a life during Maude Maggart’s new cabaret show, “Parents and Children,” in the Algonquin Hotel’s Oak Room. Maggart’s parents (Brandon Maggart and Diane McAfee) are actors and her sister is the singer Fiona Apple. During Maggart’s show, running through May 23, we are taken on a family journey, sometimes humorous, other times poignant, always entertaining.
Cabaret singers are famous for their “patter” in between songs, telling stories that reveal bits and pieces of their personal lives. The cabaret setting creates an atmosphere where intimate musings are expected and add another dimension to the performance. Maggart’s family experience continues to influence how she interprets and connects with the music. Knowing what drives her helps us to appreciate her singing even more.
Maggart’s voice is haunting with a vibrato that adds depth and emotion to any ballad she embraces. John Boswell’s piano and Yair Evnine’s guitar and cello provide the perfect accompaniment. We learn, as the program unfolds, that Maggart has many emotions about her early years. She opens with “Be a Child” (Loonis McGlohon-Alec Wilder), followed by “What Is My Name?” (Marshall Baer-Anita Nye), and Stephen Sondheim’s “Beautiful,” from Sunday in the Park with George. Along the way, we learn that her mother and father are divorced (not really, she adds, because they were never married) and when her mother was forty, she ran away with a twenty-six year old man who had just returned from a Grateful Dead tour and was living in his mother’s basement. Soon after, her father moved to California. She still lives with her father, she confesses, saying that the relationship is a good one.
Next we enter the world of adolescent angst with Babbie Green’s inspired piece “No Way, Jose,” not for the faint of heart. (Although any parent who has “been there-done that” with a teen will certainly chuckle). Maggart relays a conversation she had with her 98 year-old grandmother, asking her to recall her first love. The obviously feisty woman shot back, “First love or first sex? There’s a difference you know.” That reflection leads into Maury Yeston’s “My Grandmother’s Love Letters,” and we understand why this song resonates with Maggart. Her emotion is palpable in her rendition of Dolly Parton’s “Coat of Many Colors,” a true story about Parton’s mother fashioning her a coat out of fabric scraps. Is this the mother love Maggart misses, longs for? We are left to draw our own conclusions.
While many of the songs in Maggart’s program will be unknown to the audience (a woman next to us made her displeasure at this fact loudly known at the end of the performance), she finishes with two popular tunes: “The Man I Love,” by George and Ira Gershwin, and “Our Love Is Here to Stay,” written by Ira after George’s death. Many people believe Ira was professing his love for a woman, but, in fact, the song was about the love he had for his brother, according to Maggart. She muses about sibling love and opines how wonderful it is to have a sibling, even better to have one you are close to and love. Her closing remarks are so wistful and yearning, we cannot help but wonder about the message behind it all.
Maggart leaves us wanting more. We gather that her family is not perfect, but whose family is? Fortunately, as we leave, her CDs are on sale in the Algonquin lobby. Until next time, we will have to be satisfied listening to her unforgettable voice, sans patter.
Maude Maggart
“Parents and Children”
Through May 23
The Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel
59 West 44th Street
212-419-9331
