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Jack Donahue |
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At: The FireBird Cafe
Reviewer: David Roberts for Theatre Reviews Limited |
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Call it, as Jack Donahue himself does, the tapas approach ("a little of this, a little of that") to putting together a cabaret program or simply call it 'eclectic.' Whatever one chooses to call Jack Donahue's new program at the FireBird Café it is (for many reasons) a "must see" evening of song and healing balm.
Featuring a selection of songs from his debut CD "Lighthouse," Mr. Donahue's program reveals an outstanding vocalist and performer who, even for a brief moment, can be for each audience member playmate, lover, seducer, charismatic leader, alter ego, troubadour, and (mostly) friend.
  
Jack Donahue is one of cabaret's most honest performers and what the audience "sees" is exactly what it ultimately "gets." What it sees is a charming, very attractive, personable to a fault, often very funny young man. What the audience ultimately gets is a performance with considerable depth, originality, and rarely matched honesty.
Inviting his audience into his home, his heart, Jack Donahue begins his program with Mary Chapin Carpenter's "Come On, Come On." This chillingly seductive song serves to draw every audience member closer to the performer and to his or her own psyche's inner voice of love, laughter, longing, and life-affirming grace.
Once this connection is made, the rest of Mr. Donahue's program simply counterpoints with all of those human places of past experience, present angst, and future longing. There is no embarrassment here in the presentation of the human palette of emotion. There is only reality and the hope that in facing that reality we will all finally find strength.
Jack Donahue is comfortable with any genre of song and he brings his own styling to the performance of that song and his own interpretation to the lyric that more often than not is unique and thoughtful. Mr. Donahue is one of those singers who vocalizes with his whole body (like Tom Andersen and Judy Garland before either of them). He is a joy to listen to and a joy to watch.
There is in this program Rodgers and Hart ("Glad To Be Unhappy"), Adam Guettel ("Hero and Leander"), Shire and Maltby ("There"), Jacques Brel ("Jackie"), and Heyman and Levant ("Blame It On My Youth"). There is also Burt Bacharach and Hal David ("The April Fools" and "Alfie"). Jack Donahue tacks on some of the Beatles' "Fool On The Hill" to "The April Fools" leaving much of the audience refreshingly off guard.
Additionally there is a smattering of swing ("Sophisticated Swing" by Mitchell Parish and Will Hudson and "Penthouse Serenade" by Will Jason and Val Burton) and some not as frequently heard selections (the wonderful "Nature Boy" by Eden Ahbez). "Nature Boy" brought Ahbez to the public's attention in 1948 with Nat King Cole's recording of the song. Mr. Donahue's rendition of this song reminds the audience of that fantasy of a "strange enchanted boy" "who wandered very far" only to learn that "the greatest gift" "was just to love and be loved in return."
This reviewer's favorites were Leonard Cohen's "Song of Bernadette" and Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson's "Lost In The Stars." Though there is a considerable angst in contemporary life (Weill) there is also much mercy to heal the sorrow (Cohen). Often we simply need to love and be loved. We need, as Jack Donahue invites us to remember, to be held "as Bernadette would do." For a short time, Jack holds us in that way and in his embrace we can never be the same.
Reviewed on Friday, February 2, 2001
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Musical direction by Peter Eldridge. Percussion: Michael D'Agostino. Additional arrangements by Peter Eldridge. At the FireBird Café, 365 West 46th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues. Performances on Fridays January 26th and February 2nd at 9:00 p.m. There is a $25.00 music charge and a $15.00 food/drink minimum at the FireBird Café. Reservations: (212) 586-0244. Mr. Donahue will appear at the new Cabaret 1050, 735 10th Avenue at 50th Street on Valentine's Day February 14th at 9:00 p.m. Cabaret 1050 has a $10.00 music charge and a $10.00 minimum. Reservations: (212) 956-9456.
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