By Bart Greenberg***Making her Green Room 42 debut, Martha Bartz, the blond chanteuse with the classically trained voice, took charge of the stage with Off the Charts With Martha Bartz! and thrilled her audience with her musicality and her great sense of humor. Beautifully guided by veteran director Jeff Harnar, the singer projected the assurance of someone who knows what her voice can do, and how to adjust from her career as a classical 
soloist to the demands of the more intimate cabaret genre. With perfect diction throughout, she showed command of touching ballads (John Bucchino’s “I’ve Learned to Let Things Go”) and hysterical comedy number, (Joe Iconis and Robert Maddock’s “Yolanda at the Bottom of the Stairs,” with a healthy sample of Lotte Lenya thrown in).
What Bartz excelled at was matching her classical training and sophisticated personality with unexpectedly bawdy material such as her opener, “Pregnancy Song” (Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson Lopez) with its descriptive language of where babies come from, and “Vodka” (George Gershwin, Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II), an operetta-ish salute to the Russian drink that, in a marvelous arrangement, traveled on to Anatevka, Mexico, Marshovia and Paris. She also paid tribute to the excellent big band vocalist Jo Stafford and her alternate personality, the less talented Darlene Edwards; it takes a very assured vocalist to sing that badly.
Bartz was supported by her long-term music director Dr. Mory Ortman who offered a matching knowledge of the blend of classical and popular styles. He also contributed an attractive voice to several numbers, including an amusing quarrel duet (“Fine” by Adam Gwon) that called for a good deal of acting on both their parts, as well as a solo with the darker toned “End of the World” (Matt Alber). Additional fine musical support was provided by Steve Doyle on bass and backup vocals, and Ron Tierno on drums.
More straightforwardly, Bartz offered up classic Broadway numbers, such as “Something Wonderful” (Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein III) and “The Music That Makes Me Dance” (Jule Styne, Bob Merrill), with a conviction and clarity that personalized the songs without reference to those who previously sang them. And if she isn’t quite comfortable yet with swinging a number such as “The Best Is Yet to Come” (Cy Coleman, Carolyn Leigh) that will surely come with repeated performances. It is clear that Bartz will be a welcome visitor to the New York cabaret scene, whenever she chooses to return.
Off the Charts With Martha Bartz returns to The Green Room 42, 570 10th Ave., NYC, on October 21 at 7 PM. Tickets and more information are available via thegreenroom42.poptix.com.
Photos Courtesy of Lipstick Public Relations NYC
