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Monday, Oct 13, 2008
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Bits & Bytes |
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| Andrea Sings Astaire opens musical series at ACT Theatre's intimate Bullitt Cabaret space | |
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"This could be the start of something big"? by Milton Hamlin - SGN A&E Writer To many cabaret fans, Andrea Marcovicci is the reigning Queen Of Cabaret. For the past two decades, Marcovicci's annual cabaret show is one of the highlights of the New York cabaret scene. Touring to other cabaret hot spots-San Francisco, Philadelphia, New Orleans, London, "new spot" in Los Angeles-Marcovicci has created more than 25 nightclub acts devoted to keeping the Great American Songbook and cabaret in general alive and well. Sometimes, it's a labor of love. Sometimes, well, sometimes "This could be the start of something big," as the song goes. Continuing a three-week stay in Seattle, Marcovicci launches a new Cabaret Series at A Contemporary Theatre in the downtown theater corridor. ACT, which has two large mainstage theaters plus several small theater spaces, is using the intimate-and elegant-Bullitt Cabaret space for Marcovicci's Andrea Sings Astaire which continues with four more performances through Sunday. The talented and very personable singer/actress/performer just celebrated her 20th year at New York's legendary Oak Room of the Algonquin Hotel. Bits&Bytes had a wonderful in-person interview with the vocal stylist at the Algonquin several seasons back and renewed that association with a phone interview as she prepared to open at ACT. The SGN exclusive interview gives insight into her long association with GLBT fans-and reveals (again for the first time) why Seattle is so important to her and her husband. "I've always had strong support from Gay men and from the whole GLBT community," Marcovicci noted. "From the very beginning, my fan base has included everyone." One of the first entertainers to respond to the AIDS crisis two decades ago, the popular singer performed at early AIDS benefits "and still do." "The American Songbook belongs to everyone-not just the love songs but love songs, too," she gushed. "I like to give my 'Gay Couples' what I call a Kissing Break so they know it's fine to hold hands and be loving during the music." Late in the Astaire tribute, Marcovicci changes into male attire ("some of songs require a male image to make sense," she explains). Flirting shamelessly with a table of two young Gay men on opening night at ACT she sang "Change Partners (and dance with me)" which left the two men in hysterics as she tried to turn the song into a three-way of cabaret fantasy. "My Lesbian fans love the male transformation-you can just seem them beam when I come back on stage in tails." (Marcovicci's father and mother were amateur ballroom dance champions. Even though he was a medical doctor-known, she laughed, as "The Waltzing Doctor" in New York society-music and dance ruled his life. She proudly wears his tailcoat in her act. She wanted to wear his bow tie as well, but "it was in shreds-I had to buy a new one at Brooks Brothers!" she laughed.) Marcovicci starts the evening in an elegant black-and-white chiffon evening dress with a black-and-white feather boa to top it off. The color scheme is undoubtedly a tribute to the black-and-white films of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, his most famous dancing partner (but not his favorite-you'll learn a lot at this cabaret show). She sings Cole Porter's "Night And Day" to a vintage photo of Astaire, stressing the "Night And Day, You are the one." The photo "isn't eBay memorabilia," she told the opening crowd, "read the inscription," she asked a ringside table. Then she read it to the captivated crowd. "To Cole And Linda, Love, Fred" the photo read. (Yes, as in Cole Porter and his "lovely wife," Linda-who happy accepted Cole's Gay lifestyle during their marriage as long as their marriage came first. And it did.)? Song after song followed, all classic titles introduced by Astaire in one of his dozens and dozens of films. Everyone wrote for Astaire, one of the weakest voices in Hollywood musical history, but one of the legendary performers. Marcovicci had a tale about almost all the numbers. "They don't call me The Chatty Chanteuse for nothing," she chuckled. One highlight of the opening night was when she called Tyler MacKenzie to the stage, one of Astaire's grandsons who happens to live in the Seattle area.? "A Foggy Day (In London Town)," "This Heart Of Mine," "The Continental" followed. Laughing, she quipped, "That's from Broadway's The Gay Divorce which had to be changed in Hollywood-if there can be a Gay Divorce why can't there be a Gay Marriage? Give us Gay Marriage and then we can worry about Gay Divorce!" "They Can't Take That Away From Me," "One For My Baby (And One More For The Road)," "Cheek To Cheek" followed. Yes, she sang "them all" and several minor ones long forgotten by most-"Just Like A Needle In a Haystack," "Slap That Bass" to name only two. Marcovicci and her husband, Daniel Reichert, a talented actor who appears at regional theaters around the country, are now separated. "We are still very much in love and always will be," she confided. "Two careers, two dynamic personalities-what can I say?" They live close to each other in Los Angeles, and they share custody of their 12-year old daughter-which is the "secret Seattle tale" that the outgoing diva shared with this scribe one late night after an Algonquin show several New York trips ago. "We were openly trying to have a child, but Mother Nature was not cooperating." She came to Seattle for a one-night benefit for Intiman Theatre. Her husband was in a play there. They had not seen each other for six weeks. "We had one night together and...how do I put this....I discovered the next month that I was pregnant with Alice." The glamorous star paused dramatically and burst into laughter. "You're not going to print that-are you?" Clarifying that I certainly was, she laughed again. "Oh, go ahead-it might help another couple having trouble." Alice "is too busy in school" to travel with her mother, but she planned at least one weekend in the city of her conception. "What fun that will be," the vocalist trilled. Marcovicci plays four more performances at ACT this weekend, tonight, two tomorrow night and a Sunday matinee at 3 p.m. Then she is off to Los Angeles to polish her new show, Marcovicci Sings Rogers and Hart she premiered earlier this year at the Plush Room in San Francisco. Ticket details and reservations for the final four ACT cabaret shows at 206-292-7676. Watch this space for more ACT cabaret news-and more Marcovicci updates. |
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