Andrea Marcovicci and David Campbell

... Andrea Marcovicci and David Campbell opened their duo concert appearance at San Francisco's pleasantly small Alcazar Theater with flirting and love songs including Irving Berlin's All of My Life, which Marcovicci has recorded on her album I'll Be Seeing You. Marcovicci set a lightly self-mocking tone between the two performers; as she pointed out, "He's twenty-five and I'm...not."
    Marcovicci, an accomplished stage actress who started out three decades ago in television soaps, has made a career in cabaret as well, reaching the heights, as it were, of the Oak Room in New York's venerable Algonquin Hotel. Campbell, an Australian, also has theater training and experience. He is a rising young star of both musical theater and cabaret, poised beyond his years and, as Ms. Marcovicci described him, "hot."
    They sang a charming duet of So Far, from Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1947 show, Allegro, which led Marcovicci to gush, "God, I love duets," and she sang to him, not inappropriately, You Make Me Feel So Young. The smiles were broad and the two of them seemed to be having a genuinely good time performing together, if perhaps squeezing the humor of the boy toy/older woman setup somewhat beyond its potential.
    Campbell performed a solo set, a generous helping of songs which displayed his fine instrument, musical skills, and accomplished stage presence. Old Devil Moon, from Harburg and Lane's 1947 Finian's Rainbow, and recorded on Campbell's Taking the Wheel, demonstrated his considerable belting ability; Rodgers and Hart's Where or When, was sung softly, sweetly and convincingly. Crossing into more pop material, he might (as, indeed, might everyone) omit Moon River in the future, but rang true in an Australian tune, accompanying himself on guitar and recalling his days busking for pocket money at the mall in Elizabeth, Adelaide.
    A novelty number satirizing soap opera stars ("We're young and beautiful as seen on TV.") provided further evidence of Campbell's versatility. He champions the songs of John Bucchino and was dramatically effective singing Bucchino's Sweet Dreams, a story song about a gay guy and an abused girl both running away to L.A. to escape from their pain. The title song from Taking the Wheel, also by Bucchino, makes a powerful statement with driving power. Campbell ended his set with a Carol Hall song, a gospel-style number that further displayed his ability to deliver effectively in a variety of musical styles.
    Marcovicci's set was, alas, disappointingly uneven. Mind you, her intelligence and good humor are always evident, and it is understandable that she has collected for herself a devoted following for whom she can do no wrong. As the framework for her set, she used some research she has done into Shakespeare as a source of material for pop music. The resulting choices of songs provided a limited palette and did not allow sufficiently for a well paced concert set. Songs included were Under the Greenwood Tree, Rodgers and Harts's Sing for Your Supper (from The Boys from Syracuse), and, from Cole Porter's Kiss Me Kate, Why Can't You Behave and Too Darn Hot, the latter sung in a change-of-pace swingy mood, rather than the more usual steamy approach.
No one can accuse Marcovicci of not offering a generous program, as she continued with more than half a dozen additional songs, some quite lovely (Falling in Love With Love and an especially fine and fresh rendition of Jimmy Van Huesen's Darn That Dream). Still, too many times Marcovicci lost her pitch, wobbling above, below and around some notes as she searched for the right place to land. And she was forgetting lyrics, too, most disconcertingly in the middle of Bernstein and Sondheim's Somewhere. She had succeeded in bringing her acting/singing skills to bear on this contemporary chestnut, giving it depth and some genuine emotion, until she lost the lyric, blew the mood, and left her audience feeling cheated.
    It wasn't the age difference that put Marcovicci at a disadvantage last night. It was something she can't as easily laugh off. Campbell's well paced and well prepared set glowed with professionalism. Age is no excuse for poor pacing, inadequate preparation, and a very uneven program.
    Campbell returned for some concluding numbers with Marcovicci. He did a very funny takeoff on Mandy Patinkin singing Hello Dolly, catching Patinkin's body language and use of falsetto tones followed by a sudden drop in register. A duet of Leonard Cohen's That's No Way to Say Goodbye, was sweetly sung, though the song probably belongs in the trash heap along with Moon River. But Peter Allen songs more than compensated: a gentle I Honestly Love You and a rousing, high energy I Go to Rio.
    First rate piano accompaniment by the singers' music directors, Shelly Markham and Christopher Denny, was enhanced by some four hand arrangements in the closing songs. In all, a very generous evening of cabaret showcasing two fine talents, one amazingly professional in his youth, the other, perhaps, needing to take her audience less for granted.
                                                                            ...- Arthur Lazere