Melissa Manchester at the Café Carlyle
Jun 10, 2014 to Jun 21, 2014
$65 to $125
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For Baby Boomers like me, there’s always some danger in seeing a favorite performer from our youth perform live. Perhaps that song we loved so much now strikes us as stupid or clichéd. Perhaps the singer’s voice has diminished. Perhaps nostalgia just ain’t what it used to be.
If you have any of those fears when it comes to pop icon and Grammy Award winner Melissa Manchester, fuggedaboutit! The 63-year-old Bronx native still has those incredible pipes; those favorite songs (some of which she co-wrote) still hold up musically and lyrically; and her down-to-earth personality makes the Café Carlyle, where she is appearing through June 21, feel just like your living room.
In her savvy 75-minute act, Manchester (joined by keyboardist/percussionist Stephan Oberhoff and backup vocalist and percussionist Susan Holder) covers all her bases with aplomb. The “greatest hits” are all here, crowd-pleasers each and every one, and they are done with conviction and style, from the gorgeous “Come In From the Rain” to the plaintive “Don’t Cry Out Loud,” the heartfelt “Through the Eyes of Love,” and the ever-exuberant “Whenever I Call You Friend.”
She also serves up a batch of lesser-known and newer songs, most notably the gospel-infused “I Know Who I Am” (which was featured in Tyler Perry’s film version of “For Colored Girls”), along with a stunning version of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “Something Wonderful” that practically makes you want to cast her in a revival of “The King and I” if it wasn’t such a politically incorrect idea.
Most intriguingly, Manchester gives us a sample of four numbers from her upcoming (and 20th) album “You Gotta Love the Life” -- singing the selections live, albeit to the record’s musical tracks. And if these songs are any indication of the finished product, I’ll be ready to shell out my shekels. There’s a brilliantly slowed-down version of the 1960s girl-group classic “Be My Baby”; a delicious medley of Irving Berlin’s toe-tapping “Let’s Face the Music and Dance” and Cole Porter’s “From This Moment On,” and two fine originals: the zippy title tune and the blues-tinged “Feeling For You” (which will feature the musicianship of the great Keb Mo).
So can Melissa Manchester make it one more time? You bet! As you listen to her sing her signature tune “Midnight Blue,” just close your eyes and the past four decades melt away.
Author: Brian Scott Lipton
Cafe Carlyle
Cabaret
East 70s
35 E 76th St (Carlyle Hotel)
New York, NY 10021
(212) 744-1600
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