Theme & Variation
So far, every cabaret show I’ve done has been a theme show. One of them - Ain’t We Got Fun?: a love story about looking for work - was even named the best concept show of 2002. Whether the theme is job-hunting or politics or plain, old-fashioned loooooooooove, I enjoy the freedom of choosing songs from different eras, a range of styles, and putting them together to tell a story.
With my new show, though, I’ve set myself a different challenge. It’s going to be what they call a “songbook” show. Now, I like songbook shows as much as the next gal - especially if they’re well-researched and witty, like Karen Oberlin’s recent Yip Harburg show (which was also beautifully performed). Barbara Cook pulled off a neat trick when she surveyed the Sondheim songbook: Her remarkable Mostly Sondheim drew not just from songs written by the master, but from a list he put together for The New York Times Magazine of songs he wished he’d written.
In less expert hands, the songbook show can devolve into a long slog through the songwriter’s biography: “And then he wrote…” No matter how brilliant the songs are, it’s hard to sit through that kind of thing for long.
I’m trying to wrap my mind around a slightly different kind of songbook show - one with little or no (well, more likely “little”) biography. I seem to be pointing myself in the direction of a songbook show with a theme, a “theme-book” show I guess. Still too early to say if it’ll work, but it could be interesting if it does…
