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NY Cabaret:  Oak Room Sparkles With Maude Maggart's Silky Soprano

“Comes Love” enchants with dramatic phrasing of 30s and 40s songs

By Lucy Komisar

Maude Maggart must be ranked now as one of New York’s top cabaret singers. There is a transporting quality to her silky soprano, a delightful originality to the slight trill of her vibrato.

“Comes Love,” built around Valentine’s Day, features songs of the late 30s and early 40s. Dressed in a black sheath with brunette hair past her shoulders, she seems to step right out of that era. Close your eyes for a moment, in the dim light of the red-shaded lamps of the Algonquin Hotel’s Oak Room, and her dramatic phrasing makes you imagine that you are in the middle of a Hollywood movie built around the songs.

They are the luscious old standards by such masters as Ira Gershwin, Dorothy Fields, Rogers and Hart, Duke Ellington. Love desired, love found, love unrequited, love overwhelming.

Consider the lyrics: “I’m in the mood for love,” “You are the promised kiss of springtime,” “I hadn’t anyone till you,” “I can’t get started with you,” “Comes love, nothing can be done.”

Maude reveals to listeners that cabaret is in her blood. Her grandmother was a singer who in the late 1930s married a reed man for Harry James. She shows their to the audience. That match lasted, alas, for less than a decade. So the thirties-forties show is, in effect, a valentine to them.

“I had the craziest dream last night.” Think of the gorgeous songstress, Maude’s grandmother, doing Helen Forest songs. Think of her lover and husband blowing reeds in big swing bands led by Artie Shaw and Harry James. Think of the moment, not the future. With Maude Maggart in the Oak Room, anything is possible.

“Comes Love” starring Maude Maggart. Musical director and piano, Lanny Myers. Reeds, David de Palma.

The Oak Room, Algonquin Hotel, 59 West 44th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. Tues-Sat 9pm, dinner from 7pm. Late show Fri-Sat 11:30 pm, light fare from 10:30. Cover $50; dinner $50 plus tax and tip. Dinner required early shows Fri-Sat. Other times $20 minimum. (212) 419-9331 or bmcgurn@algonquinhotel.com. Through Feb. 25, 2006. http://www.algonquinhotel.com/cabaret-times-square-hotels.asp

Photo by Ben Baker.

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