Cabaret |
Nellie McKay
By
Published: Feb 20, 2014
Category:
Cabaret
“It’s so nice to be back at Feinstein’s,” Nellie McKay quipped, as she settled herself at the piano for her debut at the Carlyle Hotel, some 20 blocks north of Feinstein’s. At 31, she’s younger by many generations than most of the singers who perform at the Café Carlyle, and she looks even younger — think of a blond, 18-year-old college freshman with Shirley Temple curls, away from home for the first time. Appearances deceive; Nellie McKay has been building her cult for more than a decade.
You’ve never of heard of her?
Join the mob.
I was unaware of Nellie McKay until last year, when she was the intermission entertainer during the Bill Irwin-David Shriner show, “Old Hats.” She strolled the aisles, strumming a ukulele and improvising ditties, punctuated by commentary that was pointed, personal and political. Her tongue was so far in her cheek I don’t know how she was able to sing. No way not to notice her.
Being noticed has been an obsession for her since childhood, when she read biographies of actresses and dreamed of Broadway. She recorded her first CD at 19. It’s called “Get Away From Me,” and the title is a preview of her success formula: big talent, big brain, big mouth. [To buy the CD of “Home Sweet Mobile Home” from Amazon, click here. For the MP download, click here. For the MP3 download, click here.]
Let me give you an idea of her wit.
A holiday song: “A Christmas Dirge.”
Favorite New York movie theater: “Film Forum. They have good carrot cake.”
Lyric from “The Dog Song,” about adopting a shelter dog: “That’s what it’s all a-bow-wow-wow-wowt.”
Why she built a cabaret evening about Barbara Graham, a convicted murderer who was executed (gas chamber) in California (San Quentin) in 1955: “She became a prostitute, and in that respect, I can relate because everyone in show business is a prostitute.”
McKay is a godsend to journalists. Snippets from her interviews:
“People don’t understand teenagers. The only way you’re going to get your kids to not do drugs, if that’s your goal, is to do drugs around your kid, which my mother did. She smokes pot, and I’ve never wanted to.”
“If killing people is wrong, why are we killing people for killing people?”
“I definitely want to expose less flesh. I’ve read Linda Lovelace’s autobiography — I know where that road leads. I don’t mind being a sex symbol, but I’ll go the Garbo route, thank you very much.”
Would I travel to see her? Yes yes yes — McKay is a 5-star performer, though it’s hard to say of what kind. If she had to pick any one persona, it would probably be as the star of l930s Broadway musicals. But she doesn’t pick. She’s Billie Holiday, Carole King, Laura Nyro, Dionne Warwick, Doris Day — and that’s just for openers. At the Carlyle, she rapped in Russian. She sang “Moon River” in German and French. She slipped in a ditty about hypocrites (“I hope you lie yourself to sleep tonight”) and dedicated a song “to my arch-nemesis, Barbara Cook.”
A Nellie McKay show is as much about her patter as her music. She has a big brain and a bigger mouth, but she was restrained at the Carlyle. Referring to her prop, a silver-topped cane, she boasted that it was used “to beat Gandhi out of first class.” She made a toast to colonialism. She tipped the waiter who brought her champagne in coins, took some back (“That’s too much”) and left him with a dime and a nickel (“Buy yourself a pair of shoes”). So it wasn’t until her encore that the very nice young woman in the very proper gown dropped the mask and let loose with….
