Musical Director: James Court
Teatro Vivaldi – 7th May 2016
Reviewed by Bill Stephens
Mindful that one of his performances at Teatro Vivaldi’s
would be on Mother’s Day, Michael Cormick took advantage of the intimate
ambiance of Vivaldi’s to prepare a program of love songs more in keeping with
the occasion than the advertised songs from
“Phantom”, “Les Miserables”, “Annie” or
“Love Never Dies”.
One of the country’s most accomplished music theatre
stars, Cormick has performed in leading roles a succession of major musical
productions both in Australia and on the West End, and while this program
inevitably included songs from musicals, they were from musicals in which he
hasn’t yet appeared, and songs which fitted his theme of love in all its
various aspects.
Setting a relaxed, laid back tone for the program with a nicely
phrased version of Marvin Hamlisch’s, “What I Did For Love” from “A Chorus
Line” , Cormick followed with Ewan MacColl’s “The First Time Ever I Saw Your
Face”, both songs associated with female singers but the lyrics of which are
equally compelling when interpreted from the male perspective.
Cormick developed
this idea further with two songs
by Adele, “Rolling in the Deep” and “Someone Like You”, and three songs by Burt
Bacharach, “Walk on By”, “Say A Little Prayer” and “That’s What Friends are
For”. He also performed a quartet of
songs by Stephen Sondheim which included “Send in the Clowns”, “Stay With Me”,
“No One Is Alone” and a stunning version of “Being Alive”.
For some songs Cormick used recorded backing tapes, which,
although adding a professional lushness to the sound, gave those songs an
unfortunate karaoke feel, especially notable in the John Farnham song “Burn For
You”, and the Adele songs, where his excellent musical director was relegated
to simply playing along with the tapes.
For this listener, the use of backing tapes also spoilt
the enjoyment of watching the rapport between singer and accompanist as they work
together to create a performance. An element so essential for this type of
intimate cabaret experience, and one which was so obvious in this performance
in the beautiful arrangements for Rogers and Hammerstein’s, “If I Love You” and
Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”.
His connecting dialogue was not as polished as
one might expect from this calibre of performer, but “Love Songs” provided a very welcome
opportunity to enjoy an excellent collection of songs which display a very different side of Michael Cormick’s prodigious talent, in
the cosy ambience of Canberra’s little jewel-box of a cabaret room, Teatro
Vivaldi.
This review also appears in Australian Arts Review. www.artsreview.com.au
