Crane's Madoff Memories Make Off With Cabaret Cashout

By now, so much has been said about cabaret legend (and 2010 MAC Award nominee) Cynthia Crane, that it's almost impossible to think of where to begin. But with the most recent performances of her show John Denver, Bernie Madoff, and Me at Don't Tell Mama, those who were already fans find themselves once again sailing along on the beautifully moonlit bay of her talents as a vocalist and communicator. And those who were previously unfamiliar have, as always, gotten a firm shot to the brain to let them know that this is a cabaret artist who, now and for always, will remain at the top of her game.

A most unfortunate victim of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme, in which she and family were taken for a great deal of money, Crane has taken the lemons handed her by life and turned them the sweetest pitcher of lemonade in town on any cabaret stage, before or since.

Crane is home before she begins when, aided by musical director Mark Janas at the piano and Bobby Kneeland's exquisite technical direction, she opens with the Duke Ellington/Marshall Barer composition "Spider & The Fly," which is still as marvelous as when she recorded it for her first CD, The Secret Life Of A WASP. Her medley of such songs as Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi" and "Who's Sorry Now?" is as delectable as chocolate mousse, and her poignancy on Rodgers & Hammerstein's "How Can Love Survive" is as potent as a trip to Utopia and back. She also touches beautifully on love and marriage, as with "I'm Your Girl," sung as a love letter to husband Ted Story (who also directed the show, and gorgeously at that, to say the very least). By the time she gets around to "Pleurer des Rivieres" (a rendering of "Cry Me A River" en Francais), the audience is virtually weeping. And the little-heard Broadway gem "No, I Don't Think I'll End It All Today" (from Jamaica, written by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg) may possibly be even more heartfelt than when Jeff Harnar premiered it in his Algonquin show, The 1959 Broadway Songbook, some years ago.

Special mention must be made herein for guitarist Sean Harkness, in particular for his work on Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life" besides a thoroughly-solid job throughout.

Cynthia Crane, and the show, both serve as true testament that the cream always rises. Because, this time around, ladies and gentlemen, she is the cream of the crop and the top of the heap. Please take note if you hear she might be performing the show again somewhere soon.