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Francesca Blumenthal: Places, Please! |
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At: The FireBird Cafe
Reviewer: David Roberts for Theatre Reviews Limited |
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Heeding the advice of her father about what is needed to make a song a success ( for example, "always include the name of a city"), Francesca Blumenthal has enjoyed a flourishing song-writing career. Her songs have been recorded by, among others, Blossom Dearie, Cleo Laine, and Margaret Whiting.
Most songs tell stories. Stories of love and its loss, stories of pain and its relief, stories of life from its beginning to its end. Francesca Blumenthal's songs not only tell stories, they are each mini theatre pieces, often with discernable scenes and acts. When listening to one of her songs, one experiences the kind of visual and visceral content usually found only in full-length movies, novels, or stage performances.
  
Ms. Blumenthal's songs require the use of the listener's imagination and she supplies all of the ingredients needed to engage the imagination and put it to work. Her writing is concise and can be as serious as the straightest of plays or as funny as the most comedic of musicals. She has perfected the ability to engage the listener at his or her most "vulnerable" spots, the vast reserves of memory, fantasy, and imagination.
Marnie Baumer, Michael Marotta, Jaymie Meyer, and Diana Templeton join Francesca Blumenthal in singing sixteen of her songs. Ms. Blumenthal wrote the music and lyrics for all of the songs except "Married Man" (music by John Spalla), "Museum" (music by Addy Fieger), and "Queens" (music by Addy Fieger). Accompanied by Wes McAfee, Francesca Blumenthal and her friends give the FireBird audience a stellar example of her award-winning roster of songs.
"Scarlett O'Hara" (sung by Diana Templeton) engages the imagination from the start and never lets it go. "Heroes" (sung by Michael Marotta) is a nicely written song which is wonderfully funny and tastefully bawdy. "And He Would Say" (sung by Jaymie Meyer) is as complete a theatre piece as a song can be. And "Buffalo" (sung by Marnie Baumer and Michael Marotta) is just plain down-and-out funny. Just the phrase "boulevards of Buffalo" creates a fun-filled fantasy which keeps the smile on the listener's face long after the last note is sung.
Though much of Francesca Blumenthal's strength lies in comedy, she also knows how to write songs of deep emotion and feeling. "Lies of Handsome Men" (sung by Marnie Baumer) is a haunting ballad of love's deceptive possibilities.
Francesca Blumenthal sang the first and last of the program's songs "Capuccino" and "The Streets of Paree" and proves to be as delightful a performer as she is a perceptive and gifted songwriter.
The ASCAP/FireBird Songwriter Series has been a wonderful gift from the FireBird Café and the series will hopefully continue to present the work of ASCAP songwriters for a long time to come.
Reviewed on March 11, 2001
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Directed by Hope Hardcastle. Musical direction by Wes McAfee; lighting design by Tony Lauria. Presented by the ASCAP/FireBird Songwriter Series at the FireBird Café, 365 West 46th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues. Reservations: (212) 586-0244.
WITH: Marnie Baumer, Michael Marotta, Jaymie Meyer, and Diana Templeton.
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