Andrea Marcovicci in One Life To Live: A Celebration Of Gertrude LawrenceAndrea Marcovicci in One Life To Live: A Celebration Of Gertrude LawrenceIf you listen to Gertrude Lawrence's recordings, you might wonder how someone with such modest vocal resources became the toast of two continents and a star of such magnitude that her dress, face and even hair style were copied by women all over Britain. The explanation, of course, is that recordings give us only a vague approximation of what Gertrude Lawrence was like on stage. Contemporary accounts from fellow actors, playwrights, songwriters and critics speak of her extraordinary charisma and her ability, as her lifelong friend Noel Coward once said, to light up a stage simply by walking on to it. She was a talented actress with the elusive thing called "star quality".
That being the case, it seems only right that actress and cabaret star Andrea Marcovicci's current show One Life To Live is a tribute to the life and work of Gertrude Lawrence. Miss Marcovicci may not be as famous as Lawrence was in her day, but like Lawrence she's a charismatic, compelling performer who is not without her vocal limitations. The fact that those limitations become apparent only in retrospect ‚ and seem trivial when they do ‚ shows you just how spellbinding her performance is.
Wearing a stylish black dress and loads of white jewelry, Andrea Marcovicci makes a stunning entrance with the title song, Noel Coward's "One Life to Live". Flirting with and playing off of the audience, she won me and, as far as I could see, everyone else in the house over immediately. For the next ninety minutes she regaled us with tidbits about Gertrude Lawrence's life and sixteen songs closely associated with Lawrence, from standards like "Whistle a Happy Tune" and "Hello Young Lovers" ‚ both from The King And I, which Lawrence hired Rogers and Hammerstein to write for her ‚ to obscure gems such as Cole Porter's witty "He Never Said He Loved Me" and "Bad for Me". High points include the Noel Coward songs, including "Mad About the Boy", which Marcovicci infuses with genuine longing, and the wistful "Some Day I'll Find You", as well as a medley of songs from Kurt Weill's psychoanalytic musical Lady In The Dark.
Throughout the evening, Shelly Markham provides intelligent and deft accompaniment on the piano, smoothly slowing down or speeding up when Marcovicci takes theatrical liberties with the meter of a song.
And if all this isn't enough to convince you to call the Grandel Theatre immediately and order tickets, consider that as an added bonus you get a second cabaret artist on the same bill: Jennifer Sheehan, a local teen who attended Marcovicci's cabaret master class in 1999. At the end of the program she takes the stage for winning renditions of "The Way You Look Tonight" and "I Have Dreamed" and then joins Marcovicci for Cole Porter's "True Love".
And that's as it should be, since "true love" is what Andrea Marcovicci clearly has for her material. It's also what you'll have for her new show, One Life To Live: A Celebration Of Gertrude Lawrence, at the Grandel Theatre through September 22nd. Call 314-533-8825 for ticket information.