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Elaine St. George: Do Re Mi, Democracy |
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At: Judy's Chelsea
Reviewer: David Roberts for Theatre Reviews Limited |
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With George W. And Al Gore running neck and neck, song stylist Elaine St. George enters the race with her own campaign to win the heart of the American voter/cabaret goer and Ms. St. George wins with little contest.
In a well researched show about songs, song writing and politics, Elaine St. George courageously tackles most of the assumptions and presumptions which surround the process of elections, campaign speeches, and the vagaries of politics and the women and men who "practice" within that often-less-than-noble sub-species of democracy.
  
"Do Re Mi, Democracy" begins with a wonderful medley of songs whose original lyrics were later altered for use in a political campaign. For example George Gershwin's "It Ain't Necessarily So" from the 1935 "Porgy and Bess" finds new campaign lyrics in 1952 written by Ira Gershwin. Similarly, in 1956 Dick Adler adds campaign lyrics to Henry J. Sayers' 1891 "Ta-ra-ra-Boom-de-ay."
It is clear from this opening sequence that the audience is in for a smashing good time in the presence of a singer who, though no respecter of any particular candidate, has a strong commitment to the survival of the human family.
There are songs that poke fun at the political process ("Click with Dick" by Olivia Hoffman, George Stork and Clarence Fuhrman and "I Love You So" with music by Peter McCann and lyrics by Senator Orrin G. Hatch), songs that attempt to redeem that same process ("Sing Me A Song With Social Significance" from Harold Rome's 1938 "Pins and Needles" and Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg's "Napoleon" from the 1953 "Jamaica, a song written in response to the McCarthy era its atrocities), and songs that find their way into campaign speeches (the touching and haunting "Remember My Forgotten Man" by Harry Warren and Al Dubin from the 1933 movie "Gold Diggers).
Elaine St. George performs these songs with a voice that seems to have no range limits, a rich and well trained instrument which expresses the riches of a well tuned soul. Ms. St. George is a passionate, soulful, and honest singer who respects the notes she sings from music she believes in. Most of all, she is a performer who has immense depth and courage and shares her craft as though every breath, every interpretation matters.
This is most evident in two of the show's more outstanding "pairs." It is sheer brilliance to pair William Finn's "Trina's Song" from the 1981 "March of the Falsettos" with Stephen Sondheim's "Me and My Town" from his 1964 "Anyone Can Whistle." Ms. St. George explores these two songs in a way that is fresh and powerful as she does the lyrics from Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" (1938 and parody lyrics from the 1960s) and Cole Porter's "Give Me the Land" which was cut from the 1955 movie "Silk Stockings." There can be no more powerful comment on the history of a decade than the lyric "Give me a land where everyone is broke."
But it is in her finale that the audience begins to fully understand (if they had missed it previously) a part of who Elaine St. George is and what she believes in. Leonard Bernstein wrote in 1976 "I love this land; it will prevail. This land needs love to make us proud" ("1600 Pennsylvania Avenue"). Love is what is needed to make us proud of our native lands, love which attempts to survive elections, administrations, border disputes, even World Series skirmishes from the pitcher's mound.
Elaine St. George reminds us that perhaps there is nothing that can overcome that love no matter who wins a given election at any given time in our remarkable human history.
Reviewed on Sunday, October 22, 2000
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Directed by Lina Koutrakos. Musical direction by Julia Mendelsohn. At Judy's Chelsea, 169 Eighth Avenue between 18th and 19th Streets. Performance schedule: Sundays October 22nd and 29th at 5:30 p.m.; Fridays November 3rd, 10th and 17th at 11:00 p.m.; Monday November 13th at 8:30 p.m. There is a $15.00 cover charge plus a $10.00 food/drink minimum. Please call (212) 929-5410 for reservations or for further information visit www.elainestgeorge.com.
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