Celia Berk: On My Way To You
After some time away from the spotlight, Celia Berk garnered an audience of the cabaret community one rarely sees. It was heartening.
Berk’s show loosely centers on inspiring performers who broke through abject stage fright time and time again, surging forward against judgments to rise high in the profession: Al Jolson (who overcame his Cantor father’s objections), Barbra Streisand (who refused to fix her nose in accordance with traditional stage beauty), Barbara Cook (whose weight gain changed her trajectory from theater to cabaret). Though she relates to their chutzpah (supreme self-confidence: nerve, gall), Berk never once refers to obstacles or fears she herself has overcome.
Berk sings the title song as she makes her way through audience to the stage. Its pretty, light-touch arrangement reflects the period into which the song originally emerged. Every phrase is savored. Gestures are minimal. “April Showers” (Louis Silvers/B.G. DeSylva), introduced by Al Jolson in 1921, begins with lovely a capella . An anecdote about her father’s love of Jolson is charming. This is followed by narrative describing Berk’s childhood ambition to be Ethel Merman which introduces “Anything I Can Do” (Irving Berlin from Annie Get Your Gun) for which she sings both parts.
Stephen Sondheim’s “Anyone Can Whistle” arrives crystalline, straight from the hip, sincere. Berk relates this to Cook, for whom I can find no association with the show of the same name. That excellence through simplicity is more difficult than the alternative, however, fits, as does her example of Cook’s getting back before her public despite initial disparagement. “On My Way To You” (Alan and Marilyn Bergman/Michel Legrand) doesn’t relate to her theme except that Streisand once recorded it.
When Maria Callas’ management told her she’d lost her voice, we’re told she replied that it was courage she could no longer muster. Did the diva return to her fans or retire? Without the former, connection is highly tenuous. The aria “Di rigori armato” (Richard Strauss/Hugo von Hofmannsthal) is just Berk’s chance to show us this part of her skill. She translates with relish, sings with commitment.
Some selections are in admirable accord as well as being unexpected. Charles Trenet’s “Boom,” here characterizes nerves and insecurity. Piano is so distinctive, it creates a duet. Berk appears disconcerted before every declaration. “I’m the First Girl (In the Second Row in the Third Scene in the Fourth Number)” by Hugh Martin is a winner. Wearing a tulle ballet skirt with tongue firmly in cheek, the vocalist assumes familiar dance positions enacting a scene in one.
Also applicable is a successful combination of “Electricity” (Lee Hall/Elton John from Billy Elliott) and “Overjoyed” (Stevie Wonder) showing the moments one gets it right. During such an exuberant opportunity to share, however, one can’t help but wonder why Berk isn’t looking into the eyes of her audience
Changing that to which we’re accustomed, arrangements feature the artist’s head voice rather than that of her chest. In my opinion this sometimes makes a song seem monotone or stressed.
Celia Berk is a class act. One can’t help admiring her for pushing envelopes.
Also presented on April 10, April 21 and April 27
Opening by Helane Blumfield
Celia Berk: On My Way To You
Arrangements – Tedd Firth and Mark Nadler
Music Director/Accompanist – Tedd Firth
Director – Mark Nadler
The Laurie Beechman Theatre at West Bank Cafe
407 West 42nd Street
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