A short time ago Olivia Stevens, the Swedish-American actress and singer, presented the stunning Pleasure and Peril, a cabaret show portraying the almost forgotten Zarah Leander (Swedish singer/actress and Hitler favorite) as part of Karen Kohler's award-winning series Kabarett Kollektif.
Stevens has returned with Passion at the Metropolitan Room. Under the skillful direction of Eric Michael Gillett, and greatly supported by pianist Erich Rausch, Stevens is taking the scalpel to her own life as "an artist's journey into the light." In Passion she demonstrates her accomplished singing and acting in a wide variety of song styles in several languages.
Entering in a chic black outfit, Stevens launches into Kander and Ebb's "The Singer," dissecting the lyrics by telling us bits of her life story. Without pause, she describes an audition for the famous stage writer-director Ariane Mnouchkine, of the Theatre de Soleil in Paris.
She is terrified when Mnouchkine orders her to fall backwards from a ladder while singing "Look Mommy, No Hands."
Late for her first rehearsal as Sally Bowles (in Stockholm), she proceeds to fall in love with the actor playing Cliff, whom she later discovers is gay (her response being a Swedish version of "Mein Herr") as we are drawn into the world of her memories. Dazzling as Sally, she tears defiantly into "Don't Tell Mama" and plaintively delivers "Maybe This Time."
She describes her relationship to a vegetarian à la "A Tale of Obsession" and then moves on to a dramatic French/English translation of Piaf's "Hymne a L'Amour," which serves as a showcase for her startling classically-trained soprano.
"The Story of the Big Break" has Stevens discussing her frantic auditions for the part of Anita in West Side Story (also in Stockholm) - finally winning the part, although the choreographer has serious doubts regarding her dancing ability. We get a splendid sampling of that award winning performance with "A Boy Like That" and "I Have A Love."
With the sensuous rhythmic samba, "Speak Low," Stevens takes on the persona of a torch singer, following with a quietly intense rendition of Jacques Brel's "Ne Me Quitte Pas".
Using the speech from Antigone, (another of her stage roles) she takes a strong political and feminist stance - but not for long as she then describes her lusty single life with the raunchy rarity "Check Out The Men" by Frederich Hollander. Mourning "The Man That Got Away" she makes it her own with a different take then Garland's.
Finally, she reaches the edge of despair with Leonard Cohen's "Dance Me To The End of Love." We have participated in the full spectrum of Stevens' brilliance and naked honesty. Coming full circle, she is back on that ladder, now fearlessly falling backwards into the light as she reprises "Look Ma, No Hands" with the realization that every moment and love of her life was that of passion.
Now possessing strength, she can move proudly on. The most brilliant coup de théâtre is Stevens' penultimate rendition of Brel's "Valse of Mille Temps (Karusel)" sung in Swedish. The song known in English as "Carousel" begins slowly, with each refrain becoming faster.
Stevens knocked us out with her ferocious performance, never missing a note while skillfully negotiating the tongue-twisting lyrics - even in Swedish! For her encore, Olivia sweetly sang the charming "Church Bells, a Zarah Leander song that has recently turned up on YouTube. Olivia-Passion repeats at the Metropolitan Room February 17 and 24th at 7 P.M. Joe Regan Jr. February 3, 2009
Tweet this article !
