Stacy Sullivan Channels Peggy Lee in Triumphant Tribute Show at Metropolitan Room

Cabaret Review by Stephen Hanks

Most pop music and musical theater buffs carry around a mental list of iconic singer/entertainers they wish they'd heard LIVE before they died. My group of such immortals includes Al Jolson, Nat King Cole, Judy Garland, Patsy Cline, Lena Horne, Frank Sinatra and Elvis. Now I'm adding Peggy Lee to that fantasy bucket list and for that I can thank Stacy Sullivan.

Of course, I'd heard Peggy Lee sing her classic songs a zillion times over the years through old records, TV documentaries and You Tube videos, but it wasn't until I attended the October 17 opening night of Sullivan's new cabaret effort, It's a Good Day: A Tribute to Miss Peggy Lee, the first of a six-show run through next February at the Metropolitan Room (see upcoming show dates at end of this piece), that I felt a deeper affinity for the peerless Peggy. It's not that Sullivan pulled off the kind of down-pat vocal impersonation that made you feel you were actually listening to Miss Lee (and frankly, that seemed far from Stacy's goal). It's that Sullivan so adroitly articulated and emotionally inhabited the songs-and Lee's life story-through the astute arrangements and the well-crafted script, that it was almost impossible not to come away with a new appreciation for one of America's greatest jazz/blues/pop singers; one who might be considered the female Sinatra.

I'm sure I wasn't alone in doing a double take when Sullivan took the Met Room stage with her skin luminescent, her honey blonde hair flowing freely to her shoulders, and her smile so radiant that she could pass for Peggy's sister. In fact, the illustrated portrait on her media kit cover looks like the result of one of those computerized experiments in morphing faces. (Lee's family must feel the connection, as they invitEd Sullivan to sing at last May's opening of the Peggy Lee Museum in Lee's birthplace of North Dakota.) But Sullivan wasn't going to be able to get over on the similarities in looks alone. This set was an 11:30 pm spot and much of the supportive but discerning audience had just experienced a three-hour opening night show of the Cabaret Convention further uptown at Rose Theatre in Lincoln Center, so they would likely be in no mood for simply average from Sullivan in the singing department.

No worries as this show turned out to be one of those serendiptous fits of a singer to a subject and the songs. On her opening night, Sullivan was as compelling as a Peggy Lee lyric. She launched the set with the smooth, jazzy "I Love Being Here With You." (If you've never seen the You Tube video of Lee singing this song with Judy Garland on the latter's classic TV variety show, you must check it out.) She then began what she called her "Down in the Valley Medley" with the first biographical riff  (like Lee, Sullivan is the 7th of 8th children) on Lee's difficult childhood (i.e. an alcoholic father and abusive step-mother) and stormy life (her marriage to guitarist and frequent co-writer Dave Barbour, who also suffered from alcoholism). Sullivan didn't offer the usual recitation of Wikipedia entries that have become the norm in tributes shows and kept these verbal interludes brief enough to keep the show's musical flow humming along. The medley's highlight was a take on "I Got Rhythm" that went from a plaintive wail of youthful longing to a sophisticated and jazzy uptempo groove.

During more than 30 years as a magazine and website publisher/editor/writer, Stephen Hanks has written about sports, health and nutrition, parenting, politics, the media, musical theater, and cabaret. In addition to writing about New York City cabaret for BroadwayWorld.com, Stephen also reviews cabaret shows for Cabaret Scenes Magazine and CabaretScenes.org. He is the Board President of Musical Mondays Theatre Lab, which workshops new musicals in New York City, and a former Board Member of the Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs. In 2011, Stephen was an Associate Producer for the Off-Broadway show THE FARTISTE. Please contact Stephen with your comments and questions at: stephenhanks41@gmail.com

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