By Marilyn Lester***Who doesn’t love a good pun? And who doesn’t love a creatively put together cabaret show featuring a warm-hearted, multi-award winning singer and her long-time award-winning music director—plus a pair of choice sidemen? Sue Matsuki at Pangea, with Gregory Toroian on piano, and Grammy-winner bassist Skip Ward and drummer David Silliman, served up an evening of showtunes with new twists in Matsuki’s This Broads Way. And of course, the pun is that all of the songs were from an array of Broadway musicals.
Directed by Lina Koutrakos, and with arrangements by the Matsuki-Toroian collaboration, the array of numbers offered was inventive and well-constructed, with just the right amount of fun salting the meat of the show. The pair have been working together for nearly three decades, so their work is beautifully crafted and executed. Matsuki has a particular knack for humor and irony and “The Ballad of Swingin’ Todd” (arr. John McMahon, after Stephen Sondheim) was done very much Matsuki’s way, cleverly alluding to her seven (!) brothers (see below). Her introduction to the classic “Whatever Lola Wants” (Jerry Ross, Richard Adler), came with the wry note that the lyric made particular sense from a cat-owner point of view.
After the drought of no live shows during the pandemic lockdown, Matsuki was raring to go. How nice to be embraced at her re-emergance into live performing with a whole lot of love, namely “It’s Love/Love Walked In” (Leonard Bernstein, Comden & Green/George & Ira Gershwin). Then, with a bit of shtick, Matsuki’s “guilty pleasure” emerged with “Wanna Sing a Show Tune” (Ray Jessel). This Broad’s Way was a very personal show, one in which Matsuki referenced various high points (and low ones too) in her life. The narrative could have used a more cohesive through-line, but still, her text was authentic and delivered with heart. A poignant segment was a throwback to the singer’s early days, when the Connecticut-born and raised Matsuki had dreams of being on Broadway. The reality that she wasn’t destined for this career path was mirrored in “God Bless the Other 99” (Barry Manilow).
A delightfully high point, and an ongoing source of happiness, is Matsuki’s marriage. More about those seven brothers—their sister’s choices of boyfriends were widely scrutinized. But finally, her choice of husband proved to be universally approved and acclaimed, as in “From This Moment On” (Cole Porter). Matsuki also honored a beloved grandmother who drifted away and into Alzheimer’s disease with a remembrance both sad and humorous. She delivered this touching tribute in “Where or When/I Remember” (Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart/Stephen Sondheim).
Matsuki is one of the most hard-working and dedicated performers of the cabaret stage. If an audience could break into song as in the movies, the tune would be “Hello, Susan!” with its lyric, “it’s so nice to see you back where you belong.” So, with thankfulness she ended with “With Every Breath I Take” (David Zippel, Cy Coleman), a tune thar she said, is “is too beautiful to do anything else with.” And so, to this prayer in song, we say a heartfelt amen.
Leave a Reply