Orlando Cabaret Festival with “The Millay Sisters” and “It Was A
Orlando Cabaret Festival with “The Millay Sisters” and “It Was A Wonderful Year – 1940”
Mad Cow Theatre, Orlando FL</strong>
As I sat down to watch Mad Cows take on 1940, I idly asked a tablemate if the word “Anschluss” might pop up. He replied offhandedly “That was 1938.” See? Cabaret CAN still educate. This zero ended year provided some of the most obscure yet most enjoyable of the “Wonderful Year” series – there weren’t more than three songs I could hum, but the ones I missed I’ll be practicing in the shower. In 1940, Country Music crept into the popular music field, York Peppermint Patties, nylon stockings and Kentucky Fried Chicken debuted, as did a young Frank Sinatra. Sinatra’s first hit, “Moonbeams and Polka Dots” was off my radar, but I knew about Boogie Woogie. The quick mash up of “Beat Me Daddy Eight to the Bar,” “Washer Woman”, and “Java Jive” jumped, and a few numbers from “Pal Joey” and Jerome Kern gave us a sample of the big hits from 1940 Broadway.
Team Wonderful Year included Kyle Mattingly on piano, Kevin Kelly, David Kelly, Krista Abbot and Sara Barnes. Mattingly was allowed a joke of two, and the show had a moment of patriotic furor with the ensemble performing “America Sings” by Jerry Silverman. The pre-war years were fraught with anxiety but idealized romance (“Nightingale in Barkly Square”, “Taking a Chance on Love”) help calm everyone down and prepared then for the upcoming slaughter. The show projects that dancing-on-the-edge feeling of 1940, and it’s much more lively than that Oldies AM station from up in the Villages.
The “Millay Sister” was one of most lightly attended shows I ran into this Cabaret Festival, but by far one of the most interesting. Edna Vincent Millay (Rachel Murdy) preferred her masculine middle names, and become one of the shining lights of literature in the first half of the 20th century. Her simple, direct language mirrored Hemingway’s short, direct sentences, and her wild and well publicize love life helped define the modern bohemian artist. He story flows from the perspective of her sister Norma (Margi Sharp) who terrorizes the preshow crowd in the lobby. She’s cruising for potential audience participation, and when it appears sister Vincent is late to her own cabaret she dresses a man in a Pierrot costume and has him reading lines. For about ten minutes I thought this was to be a one woman show, but eventually Vincent appears, mannerist tall and completely disassociated for the comic intensity of Norma.
Rather than sing a group of thematic songs, or songs that the vocalist felt flattered her voice, it’s oddly engaging biography explored the sister’s lives and loves. Growing up in 1900 Camden Maine, there was little to do, and the three sisters found a bond in music that made up for a working single mother. Vincent tacked Vassar and ended up in Greenwich Village, and soon Norma visited while youngest Catherine drifted off into psychosis and alcohol. The musical choices send toward old sing-along like “There is a Tavern in the Town” and “G-G-G-Girl L-L-L-Like Y-Y-You” and flew over the keyboard styling of Steven Katz. Yes, it’s a documentary, but it has decent music, wild sex and some great acting, and it might even may you look up the sisters and read some poetry.
For more information on Mad Cow, please visit http://www.madcowtheatre.com and for times and tickets for Orlando Cabaret Festival, look up http://OrlandoCabaret.com
