Barbara Cook Fine at Feinsteins: You Make Me Feel So Young

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By Rob Lester

Singing off-mic, as she’d later do for her encore of John Lennon’s “Imagine,” at the end of a sublime evening, Barbara Cook made a unique entrance onto the stage, with a little help from her friends.  The friends were a couple of obliging waiters at Feinstein’s at Loews Regency, where the queen of cabaret and musical theatre is holding court through June 18 and, apparently, enjoying herself royally.  The step up to the stage was seemingly the only true challenge this champion had.  Although the joint was jumping with excitement and admiration, her own body’s joints were less cooperative, as she cutely explained -- with special lyrics by Jim Luigs --- about doctors suggesting surgery, set to the music of “I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise.”  

The paradise was ours as she yet again demonstrated the mastery of her art, with many songs new to her repertoire, although they’d been around for decades, now seeming like they’d been waiting patiently for her to grace them.  Much of her casual patter was simply about how much she loved them --- and that showed in her delight and shared glances and grins with musical director/pianist Lee Musiker who led the band.   They were into the music and she gets deep, deep into the lyrics in a ballad, making every word count and noticed. 

Although it might not have been easy to step on or off the stage (the waiters returned after she asked us to just pretend she’d exited and come back for an encore), stepping into characters and moods of songs was smooth and instant.  She announced she was going to do a song from the musical On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, full of great numbers, and I knew what it was as introductory chords began – but not from the introductory chords.  No.  For a few moments before she sang, her face instantly changed and she looked crestfallen and confused and troubled.  It could only be “What Did I Have That I Don’t Have?”  And her phrasing of the lyric, a series of questions laced with self-doubt left no doubt that she remains at the top of her game as a singing actress.  To watch this up close in an intimate cabaret setting is truly a privilege.  You can feel her pain when she closes her eyes for a moment, as if to summon or dismiss a memory, you can see the wheels turn as you look in her eyes.  And when she rapturously relishes the romance of “When I Look in Your Eyes” or joyously proclaims the final line, “I love to look in your eyes!” while romping through Rodgers & Hart’s “This Can’t Be Love,” it’s just another moment of feeling like you’re seeing eye to eye with her about how love and life can feel.  There are no accidents here.  It’s serious, thoughtful work and craft, part of which is keeping things fresh.  This Cook’s recipes for song interpretations have remarkable shelf lives, without the artificial preservatives.  In the bone-honest self-appraisal about being helpless against  love as addictive drug, “I’m a Fool to Want You,” note her all-too-aware trepidation of what’s to come as she pauses after the words “But then…” before continuing with “would come the time when I would need you.”   

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