Reviewed by Joe Regan Jr.
Kathryn Allyn, a classically trained mezzo-soprano who has played many leading roles at opera houses all over the United States including several leads at New York City Opera, did her second cabaret show August 8th at the Metropolitan Room in New York City. Her show was entitled “Playing Hard To Get: Rare Gems and Hidden Treasures.” The able Frank Ponzio was her music director, arranger and pianist, and she was supported by superb bassist Tom Hubbard, and Scott Neumann on drums and percussion. Neumann was a substitute and it was mentioned at one point in the show that he had only two hours rehearsal. For the record, Ms. Allyn’s show was sold out.
Allyn, in a stunning outfit, opened with a boisterous “This Must Be The Place,” a song she stated was recorded as a duet by the blonde bombshell Betty Hutton and Tennessee Ernie Ford! She read a Wikipedia bio of Hutton that related, as a 3 year old her father deserted the family and her mother opened a speakeasy and Hutton entertained the customers. Most of the songs she was going to sing were hard to get as sheet music so she had to rely on Ponzio to make the arrangements for her. One of her mother’s favorite singers was Jo Stafford. Stafford was so popular with the U.S. Forces in World War II that the Japanese would broadcast her music to make U.S. soldiers home sick. In the midst of the war the musicians went on strike against the major recording companies. Lt. Robert Vincent, in the Army’s Morale Branch, went to the Pentagon seeking approval for a program that would create records made especially for military personnel. Artists were not compensated, nor were copyright and royalty restrictions imposed. The recordings were called V-Discs and were supposed to be destroyed after use. Because of new technology, the recordings could last as long as 6.5 minutes and often featured recorded personal messages to the troops. The best singers volunteered for these recordings and they chose songs that their contract record labels wouldn’t record. Fortunately, and eventually, all were saved and are now housed in the Library of Congress.
One of Allyn’s great finds is a risqué song that Stafford recorded entitled “Bakery Blues.” Stafford sings about not giving her pastry to her errant boy friend; he can go to the woman next door, like she knows he did before! The lyrics are enormously raunchy for Stafford and Allyn punched them out with great humor!
Allyn tells us she grew up in a small town, “Kansas City!” and her mother used to sing in the kitchen. Her Mother taught her “The Spinach Song,” which was introduced by Julia Lee, who actually sang at the Truman White House. It’s another extremely raunchy song and she can’t imagine Lee sang that song for Truman. Her other Lee selections were “Decent Woman’s Blues,” a warning blues, and another extremely risqué song, “Don’t Save It Too Long.” Allyn sang them all with sly humor and pleasure, although sometimes the percussion and drums were overwhelming.
The Billie Holiday selections were the rarely sung “If The Moon Turns Green” and a song from 1933 “The Moon Looks Down and Laughs.” Allyn changed the pace by returning to Betty Hutton, the biggest box office star in the forties and the highest paid Paramount contract player, singing three motion picture songs “Hamlet” from Red Hot and Blue, the torch song “Do It the Hard Way” from Duffy’s Tavern, whose plot was about the scarcity of shellac, and the wild “I’m Doing It for Defense,” from the all-star revue film Star Spangled Rhythm.
Allyn went back to Stafford for her final numbers. She mentioned that in the early days of television Stafford had her own TV show at the same as Liberace had his. She imagined what it would have been like if they had combined forces and Ponzio did a spot on imitation of Liberace playing “Liebestod.” Then Allyn sang a beautiful version of Stafford’s single “Indiscretion,” Alexander Cicognini’s theme from Indiscretion of an American Wife (Terminal Station) which was sung by Patti Page in a special section at the beginning of the U.S. version. Allyn was accompanied by Ponzio as she sang the beginning of the song simply and purely, and Hubbard and Neumann subtly joined in to create further beauty. The next song was one of my favorite undiscovered Jo Stafford singles, “Smoking My Sad Cigarette” (Don George-Bea Walker) (which I sang on my 70th birthday program of undiscovered songs with only singers present). Accompanied only by Ponzio, Allyn sang it sweetly and simply. Her last selection was one of her own favorites, “Gypsy in My Soul,” and the encore an unlisted raunchy ditty which Allyn belted out with the band blaring full blast.
Posted by Sandi Durell
on August 9, 2012. Filed under Cabaret,Cabaret and Interviews - Sandi Durell,COLUMNS,ENTERTAIMENT,Music.
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