Catching this concert, fans of her many Broadway roles might at first be surprised or disappointed to discover a set list essentially devoid of showtunes. They needn鈥檛 worry. From the moment Mazzie opens her distinctively large mouth, it鈥檚 clear that her singular voice鈥攁n impressively rangy and smooth instrument, which erupts effortlessly in velvet and silk鈥攊s to be well showcased in this program.
Looking dazzling and at least a decade shy of her fifty-something years, in an elegant gold-beaded cocktail dress, she takes the stage and launches immediately into a freshly unadorned rendition of the hit, 鈥淐ome on-a My House.鈥� With her warm, womanly sound and presence, Mazzie is an effective interpreter of the Clooney songbook, and the audience is soon treated to an especially rich performance of 鈥淭enderly.鈥� There are actually only a couple of other standards (including a scintillating percussive arrangement of 鈥檚 鈥淏eguine The Beguine,鈥� a worthy homage to 鈥檚 recording), and then it鈥檚 on to pop music of the 1960s and 1970s.
Mazzie playfully explains the direction the evening will take, which is a trip down memory lane, a sort of musical memoir of her childhood in suburban Illinois, focusing on the songs that moved her and made her want to sing (into her purple hairbrush, we鈥檙e told). Later in the show, she intimates that, as an adolescent, she used the hairbrush for other, more erotic purposes. There鈥檚 something wonderful about Mazzie, a celebrated Broadway actress casually sharing what might, in another era, have been taboo, particularly for a woman. It jibes perfectly with the post-Sexual Revolution genre of music she loves and shares with her audience. Indeed, despite the frank chat and musical styles, this is basically a traditional cabaret act. This many decades after Mazzie鈥檚 beloved Monkees topped the charts, songs by and and Dusty Springfield and are standards; the Great American Songbook has been expanded.
Mazzie makes this point convincingly, pouring her lush voice into popular songs that defy the old-fashioned idea of a musical theatre singer. For all her soprano chops and belt gravitas, Mazzie has been at the forefront of a generation of Broadway stars who grew up on another era鈥檚 music and whose voices are versatile enough to do it justice. There is no loss in legitimacy going from Mama Cass鈥檚 seminal original recording of 鈥淢ake Your Own Kind of Music鈥� to Mazzie鈥檚 moving cover. Similarly, her passionate 鈥淎nyone Who Had A Heart鈥� is as powerful as Dionne Warwick鈥檚 1963 hit.
All of this forges an appealing connection between the audience, the Marin Mazzie on stage and the conjured-up Marin Mazzie of years past. We are engaged to the level of being transported to moments in her back-story, and the catharsis of the shared journey creates a context for these popular songs to move us in the way a showtune would. When it comes to Marin Mazzie, to quote her encore, 鈥淚鈥檓 A Believer.鈥�
