(Editor’s Note: NLE is pleased to have our reviewer, John Amodeo, report on the Boston-area performances of artists familiar to our New York Metro area readership. Enjoy his review of Eden Casteel’s Kahn Artist.)
By John Amodeo***If the hallmark of a perfect cabaret show is one that connects deeply with an audience in an intimate setting and moves them to laugh out loud or wipe away tears, then Eden Casteel’s recent show Kahn Artist: Mad
eline & Me, performed at the Club Café’s Napoleon Room, was nothing short of perfect. From the moment she entered the back of the room, greeting us with her opening number, making direct eye contact and brushing shoulders with her fingertips as she passed, Casteel captured us in the palm of her hand and didn’t release us until the final notes of the encore.
Taking strong cues from her director, Tony Award-winner Faith Prince, and her co-writer, MAC Award-winner Rod Ferguson, Casteel wisely eschewed the usual trap of a themed show by making this one as much about herself as it was about her subject and role model, Madeline Kahn, a screwball soprano who loved to make people laugh, much like Casteel herself. The opening number, “Ain’t Got No Home,” by Clarence ‘Frogman’ Henry, peppered with notes so high they could shatter glass, was one Kahn sang on “Saturday Night Live,” giving an indication of where the show was going.
Casteel is a remarkable singer. Classically trained, she has perfect pitch, incredible breath control, marvelous phrasing and a gorgeous vibrato, whether performing coloratura in her signature soprano range or belting in her equally rich chest voice, making every song a feast for the ears. Add to that her skill at storytelling, whether being inspired by seeing Kahn on a Michelob beer commercial that convinced Casteel there truly was a place for comic sopranos in the entertainment world, or being disappointed in grade school that her singing voice was too high to try out for Annie. She segued seamlessly from her often poignant yet comic patter 
into such treats as Randy Newman’s self-deprecating “I Want Everyone to Like Me,” and the zany “Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life” (Victor Herbert, Rida Johnson Young), which Kahn sang in Young Frankenstein.
Tickling our funny bones with some other trademark Kahn numbers, Casteel tore through “Never” (Cy Coleman, Betty Comden and Adolph Green: On the 20th Century) like a Tasmanian devil; hilariously German-accented her way through “Das Chicago Song,” a Kurt Weill-Pirate Jenny parody turned tour-de-force; and amazed us with Stephen Sondheim’s “(Not) Getting Married Today” from Company, rattling off rapid-fire tongue twisting lyrics with miraculous aplomb. Turning on a dime, she skewered our hearts with the Goldrich-Heisler gem “Funny How the Love Gets in the Way,” and the brilliant Heitzman-Reid “Not Funny,” touchingly relating these songs to joyful or tragic moments in her own life. Arrangements by musical director Jim Rice, who expertly accompanied Casteel, were deliciously rich and textured.
Kahn, who died too soon at the age of 57 (from ovarian cancer ,in 1999) would have loved this show, which Casteel continues to hone and perform frequently, with gigs this month in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and later in the year in San Francisco. More chances await, so, miss the next one at your own peril.
