From Broadway To Hollywood: A Celebration Of Song–Our New Cabaret Show!

Athena McElrath and KJ McElrath of McElrath Cabaret would like to invite you to our new Cabaret show for the 2012 season.  Entitled “From Broadway To Hollywood:  A Celebration Of Song,” it is a show created with songs from classic Broadway shows and Hollywood films, and includes many familiar favorites such as Come Fly With Me, Tea For Two, Give Me A Kiss To Build A Dream On, I Wonder Why–You’re Just In Love, and a sparkling finale medley that you will not want to miss!

We have two upcoming shows, with more in the near future.  Here are the details:

1.  Friday, January 20, 2012 from 2- 3 pm–POSTPONED TO A LATER DATE–TBA

     Courtyard Village

     4555 NE 66^th Ave.

     Vancouver, WA

     (360) 693-5900 

 

Please check in at the reception desk when you arrive, and the show will be held in the dining room to the left.

 

2.   Friday, February 3, 2012 from 2:30 – 3:30pm

      Glenwood Place Senior Living

      5500 NE 82^nd Ave.

      Vancouver, WA

      (360) 892-1100

 

Please check in at the reception desk when you arrive, and they will direct you to the location.  This is a regular Wine and Cheese event for the wonderful people that live at Glenwood Place, and due to regulations they are not allowed to serve alcohol to guests, but you are very welcome to come in, have a snack and see the show!

 

Cost for both events:  Free!

 

Please, if you can, do let us know if you are coming by leaving a comment on this blog post regarding this event–see below.  

 

So glad that you found our blog–there will be more great posts about cabaret performers from today as well as yesterday, about composers and lyricists, and other topics of interest to the budding cabaret performer, so please check back regularly!  And please leave a comment–it really helps me to know that someone is reading this! 

 

Here is our flyer!

 

Come see the show--it's free and fun! Only one hour long!

 

 

Judy, Frank and Dean: Once In A Lifetime–A Review

Just watched the 1962 television special entitled, “Judy, Frank and Dean:  Once In A Lifetime,” and I really enjoyed it.  The song list was:

Judy, in a black short v-neck dress with black hose and heels, and a burgundy shiny jacket with sequin detailing around the neck and front, singing the opening:

–Just in Time

–A bit of The Man That Got Away

–When You’re Smiling (with the verses)

She changed to the same black dress but with a light blue jacket with sequin accents, to sing:

–You Do Something To me –partway through this song, Frank Sinatra appears and they end the song together.

Patter ensues, then Frank sings:

–Too Marvelous For Words

Patter, then Judy sings

–You Do Something To Me–partway through this song, Dean Martin appears and they end the song together.

Patter, then Dean sings:

–You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby

Patter, then all three sing:

–You Do Something To Me (reprise)

Patter with Dean and Frank, then Frank sings:

–I See Your Face Before Me

Judy appears next, in the same black dress, but this time with a black jacket accented with black fur around the neck line and cuffs, and she is seated at a table in a room adorned with red, and she sings:

–The Man That Got Away

Frank and Dean next appear at a 1960’s bar, and they are smoking and drinking and they sing:

–The One I Love Belongs To Somebody Else–they start by singing together, then alternate lyrics between the two of them.  At the end of the song, they turn upstage and throw focus to Judy, who appears behind them.  She is in the same black dress,  but this time with a pink jacket with sequin adornments.  She sings:

–I Can’t Give You Anything But Love (very slowly, unlike the way it is typically played at most trad jazz jam sessions)

Next is a medley with the three of them, which includes:

–Let There Be Love, into

–You’re Nobody Till Somebody Loves You

The end of the show is all Judy.  She wears an ultra-mod, 1960s black pants and flats with a dark blue v-neck sequined shirt.  She sings, in a theatre in the round, so she is smack dab in the middle of the entire audience:

–You Made Me Love You

–The Trolley Song

–Zing!  Went The Strings Of My Heart

–Rockabye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody

–Swanee, How I Love You

and the closer was:

 –San Francisco, Open That Golden Gate

The show on video ran 50 minutes, and there were 18 song selections, some of which were reprises.

I liked that they appeared to be having fun.  I liked that it felt personal, that we as audience members wanted to be one of them and having that kind of fun.  They were the epitome of sophisticated style, but they didn’t act snobby.  Instead, they included the audience in the moment, and allowed them in, to share in their moment in each song.  They were all middle aged at this point, but all were so very sexy and all were in good voice, despite the cigarette smoking and alcohol swilling that appeared to be going on.

What really struck me was how they caressed the lyrics.  There was no glossing over the meaning, but each moment was held up as a jewel, and the audience was allowed to see it through the singer’s lens, which helped the audience to understand it, and thus they related to it, and thus loved it, as was apparent in the thunderous applause at the end of each segment.  Each song told a story, and they used their acting–story-telling abilities as well as their beautiful voices to bring each song fully to life.

Many good lessons in this short video for cabaret performers.  I recommend you watch it if you get the chance.  It is available on Netflix.

Cabaret Performance at Lake Oswego–A Recap

We had a great time performing our new sets at the Lake Oswego Farmers’ Market this past weekend.  Fantastic to see friends out in the audience as well.  The market had a lovely sound system that they allowed us to use, which was great.  The weather cooperated, and was neither too cold nor too warm, making it pleasant to perform outside, and comfortable for the audience to sit and listen.

The songs went quite well.  I did a vocal warm-up prior to leaving the house for the set, and it was a while before we sang, so if I had it to do over again I would try to find a quiet spot to do an additional short warmup prior to going on, but we were busy setting up and no quiet spots were nearby, so it didn’t happen this time.  There was really no backstage area, so that made it a bit challenging, but we did the best with what we had to work with.

Songs that we had rehearsed but I had not expected to go over with the audience really surprised me by being some of the highlights of the show.  One song in particular, which has great music and lyrics but has been challenging for us to get the right performance feel for in rehearsal, had the audience clapping away at the end–a pleasant surprise.  Our friend William has a keen eye for picking a song that will play well to an audience, and I have learned to simply trust his instincts in this regard, as was proven out at this performance, and for which we are extremely grateful.  I am sure we will continue to work on these numbers and tighten them up even more as rehearsals continue on this show.

Some of the bits that we had planned out also seemed to have the effect we wanted on the audience, which was extremely encouraging.  If you give an honest presentation of a song, with honest emotions, the audience will stay with you and wait to see what you will do next.  That is a fabulous place to be in a set, and why I love entertaining crowds who are willing to come along for the ride that we provide in our songs.

We video taped and audio taped the performance, and a family member took still pictures for us as well.  The stills may be useful for publicity shots, and the video and audio tapes, while not of a high-enough quality to post publicly, are extremely helpful in analyzing how the performance went, exactly what the audience reaction was to songs, and it gives us a place to start to revise and tighten the show to make it even better.  I have to say that as I was performing I had a couple of spots where, after I sang, I thought, “Ah, that didn’t go so well,” but the video tape does not lie, and it was actually just fine.  Could I have sung a couple of notes better in terms of vocal placement and clarity?  Of course, but it wasn’t as bad as I had imagined it was in the actual moment of execution.  This is another reason why video is helpful–you get the truth of the performance situation, and not how you imagined it to be, which may be an inaccurate representation based on your emotions and anxieties of the moment.

Overall, I am very pleased with the performance, and we will continue to work on the show and perform it again hopefully in the near future.