Feinstein's
Cabaret Review | Rebecca Luker
A Broadway Regular Turns the Spotlight on Female Songwriters
By STEPHEN HOLDEN
Published: May 11, 2006
Richard Termine for The New York Times
Rebecca Luker
When two cultures collide, they don't always divide into red and blue
armies. On occasion they achieve the kind of magnificent fusion embodied by the Broadway singer Rebecca Luker.
Early in her show devoted to female songwriters at Feinstein's at the Regency, Ms. Luker recalls growing up in
Alabama, where a typical meal consisted of "mountains of grits and a whole
mess of pecan pie," and the dinner table talk was of "football, church, football and, oh yeah, football." Ms. Luker,
now a New Yorker, subsequently married into a cosmopolitan family. Dinner table conversation nowadays is about art, philosophy and politics.
But as Ms. Luker's radiant stage presence suggests, art, philosophy, and
politics — not to mention American theater songs — are tastier when accompanied by hearty slices of pecan pie. A glow of Southern warmth along with the confidence of a traditional beauty queen infuse everything she sings in much the same way that a welcoming aura of Southern hospitality enables Barbara Cook (who is from Atlanta) to warm up even the chilliest Sondheim meditation on love and death.
Ms. Luker is an ardent champion of new American theater songs, combining an introspective urban sophistication with musical-comedy chattiness that are scattered throughout her show.
Her lyric soprano lends a quality of robust well-being to everything she sings. As her voice swells, it gains in
beauty, textural fullness and emotional power. Never do you feel that she is showing off her prodigious vocal
talent for its own sake. She unfurls sweeping vocal lines without ornamentation and in perfect pitch. This doesn't
preclude her from occasionally venturing toward jazz in a song like "The Best is Yet to Come." But it is most
impressive in lyrical flights that demand a pure, steady, semi-operatic legato.
An early career triumph for Ms. Luker was her portrayal of Lily in the 1991 Broadway show "The Secret Garden," whose songs by Lucy Simon (music) and Marsha Norman (lyrics) strive for the kind of soaring, unadorned lyricism found in certain Richard Rodgers ballads. To hear Ms. Luker perform "Come to My Garden" and "How Could I Know?" from that show, back to back, is to hear a singer shoot the moon not only technically but also dramatically as she locates the songs' eerie romantic mysticism and rides it heavenward.
Rebecca Luker performs through May 20 at Feinstein's at the Regency, 540 Park
Avenue, at 61st Street; (212) 339-4095.
A Broadway Regular Turns the Spotlight on Female Songwriters
By STEPHEN HOLDEN
Published: May 11, 2006
Richard Termine for The New York Times
Rebecca Luker
When two cultures collide, they don't always divide into red and blue
armies. On occasion they achieve the kind of magnificent fusion embodied by the Broadway singer Rebecca Luker.
Early in her show devoted to female songwriters at Feinstein's at the Regency, Ms. Luker recalls growing up in
Alabama, where a typical meal consisted of "mountains of grits and a whole
mess of pecan pie," and the dinner table talk was of "football, church, football and, oh yeah, football." Ms. Luker,
now a New Yorker, subsequently married into a cosmopolitan family. Dinner table conversation nowadays is about art, philosophy and politics.
But as Ms. Luker's radiant stage presence suggests, art, philosophy, and
politics — not to mention American theater songs — are tastier when accompanied by hearty slices of pecan pie. A glow of Southern warmth along with the confidence of a traditional beauty queen infuse everything she sings in much the same way that a welcoming aura of Southern hospitality enables Barbara Cook (who is from Atlanta) to warm up even the chilliest Sondheim meditation on love and death.
Ms. Luker is an ardent champion of new American theater songs, combining an introspective urban sophistication with musical-comedy chattiness that are scattered throughout her show.
Her lyric soprano lends a quality of robust well-being to everything she sings. As her voice swells, it gains in
beauty, textural fullness and emotional power. Never do you feel that she is showing off her prodigious vocal
talent for its own sake. She unfurls sweeping vocal lines without ornamentation and in perfect pitch. This doesn't
preclude her from occasionally venturing toward jazz in a song like "The Best is Yet to Come." But it is most
impressive in lyrical flights that demand a pure, steady, semi-operatic legato.
An early career triumph for Ms. Luker was her portrayal of Lily in the 1991 Broadway show "The Secret Garden," whose songs by Lucy Simon (music) and Marsha Norman (lyrics) strive for the kind of soaring, unadorned lyricism found in certain Richard Rodgers ballads. To hear Ms. Luker perform "Come to My Garden" and "How Could I Know?" from that show, back to back, is to hear a singer shoot the moon not only technically but also dramatically as she locates the songs' eerie romantic mysticism and rides it heavenward.
Rebecca Luker performs through May 20 at Feinstein's at the Regency, 540 Park
Avenue, at 61st Street; (212) 339-4095.
December 14, 2005
Cabaret Review | Rebecca Luker
Richard Termine for The New York
Times
Rebecca Luker focuses on female songwriters at Feinstein's
The Ghosts of Broadway, Past and Future
By STEPHEN HOLDEN
Correction
Appended
Rebecca Luker stitches together pieces of time. In her gorgeous,
full-bodied soprano, Broadway Past (an innocent blond ingénue who floats sweet,
high notes into the ether) and Broadway Future (a dramatic realist with an
earthy sense of humor) meet and merge. Everything old is new again; everything
new is balanced with a classicist's understanding of traditional musical values
and vocal technique.
What makes her New York cabaret debut at Feinstein's at the Regency, where
she is appearing through tomorrow, all the more auspicious is her choice of a
program devoted largely to the possible future of American theater music.
Accompanied by Joseph Thalken on piano and Dick Sarpola on bass, she sings
the work of female songwriters ranging from Kay Swift (lyricist for "Can't We Be
Friends?") and Dorothy Fields (lyrics for "The Way You Look Tonight") to several
little-known contemporary teams, including Beth Blatt (lyrics) and Jenny Giering
(music), and Marcy Heisler (lyrics) and Zina Goldrich (music).
Like the new work she performed in February in Lincoln Center's American
Songbook series, the contemporary songs in her show belong to an academic school
of carefully wrought theatrical songwriting that exists on its own island off
the rock 'n' roll mainland.
How durable it turns out to be is hard to judge because Ms. Luker (like Audra
McDonald, another singer committed to new music) lends even the most anecdotal
lyrics a gravitas that keeps you hanging on every word.
Some of the newer songs are downright funny. "He Never Did That Before," with
lyrics by Mark Campbell and music by Debra Barsha, describes a post-coital
anxiety attack in which a satisfied lover suddenly wonders where her partner
learned the surprising "new twist on our bedtime story" he introduced to their
lovemaking and begins to fret over possible infidelity.
On the traditional side, romantic ballads like "On My Way to You" (by Marilyn
and Alan Bergman, with Michel Legrand), and "The Way You Look Tonight" become
shimmering long-lined vocal flights that breathe with life.
If you've been wondering who, if anyone, might be the heir to the great
Barbara Cook, Ms. Luker, who also comes from the South (Birmingham, Ala.) and
also played Marian the librarian (in the revival of "The Music Man") is the
one.
Rebecca Luker performs through tomorrow at Feinstein's at the Regency, 540
Park Avenue, at 61st Street; (212) 339-4095.
Cabaret Review | Rebecca Luker
Richard Termine for The New York
Times
Rebecca Luker focuses on female songwriters at Feinstein's
The Ghosts of Broadway, Past and Future
By STEPHEN HOLDEN
Correction
Appended
Rebecca Luker stitches together pieces of time. In her gorgeous,
full-bodied soprano, Broadway Past (an innocent blond ingénue who floats sweet,
high notes into the ether) and Broadway Future (a dramatic realist with an
earthy sense of humor) meet and merge. Everything old is new again; everything
new is balanced with a classicist's understanding of traditional musical values
and vocal technique.
What makes her New York cabaret debut at Feinstein's at the Regency, where
she is appearing through tomorrow, all the more auspicious is her choice of a
program devoted largely to the possible future of American theater music.
Accompanied by Joseph Thalken on piano and Dick Sarpola on bass, she sings
the work of female songwriters ranging from Kay Swift (lyricist for "Can't We Be
Friends?") and Dorothy Fields (lyrics for "The Way You Look Tonight") to several
little-known contemporary teams, including Beth Blatt (lyrics) and Jenny Giering
(music), and Marcy Heisler (lyrics) and Zina Goldrich (music).
Like the new work she performed in February in Lincoln Center's American
Songbook series, the contemporary songs in her show belong to an academic school
of carefully wrought theatrical songwriting that exists on its own island off
the rock 'n' roll mainland.
How durable it turns out to be is hard to judge because Ms. Luker (like Audra
McDonald, another singer committed to new music) lends even the most anecdotal
lyrics a gravitas that keeps you hanging on every word.
Some of the newer songs are downright funny. "He Never Did That Before," with
lyrics by Mark Campbell and music by Debra Barsha, describes a post-coital
anxiety attack in which a satisfied lover suddenly wonders where her partner
learned the surprising "new twist on our bedtime story" he introduced to their
lovemaking and begins to fret over possible infidelity.
On the traditional side, romantic ballads like "On My Way to You" (by Marilyn
and Alan Bergman, with Michel Legrand), and "The Way You Look Tonight" become
shimmering long-lined vocal flights that breathe with life.
If you've been wondering who, if anyone, might be the heir to the great
Barbara Cook, Ms. Luker, who also comes from the South (Birmingham, Ala.) and
also played Marian the librarian (in the revival of "The Music Man") is the
one.
Rebecca Luker performs through tomorrow at Feinstein's at the Regency, 540
Park Avenue, at 61st Street; (212) 339-4095.
