Jessica Molaskey: Betwixt, Between
but Not Bewildered

New York Times: Cabaret Review
By STEPHEN HOLDEN
Published: June 15, 2006

What are "Limbo Songs"? Until a better title comes along, that is the tentative, half-joking name Jessica Molaskey has applied to her wonderful new cabaret show at the Oak Room of the Algonquin Hotel. Although she is open to suggestions, I doubt she will find a better one.

A limbo song, she suggested slyly at Tuesday's opening night show, is one that evokes the feeling of dislocation between a voice and its echo that you experience during a performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Yankee Stadium. In other words, where exactly are you?

That's the level of sophisticated wit this fiercely intelligent performer sustains during her show. It is embodied in the lyrics of songs like "You're a Builder-Upper," the Harold Arlen-E. Y. Harburg-Ira Gershwin standard whose tongue-twisting words ("You're a builder-upper, a breaker-downer/A holder-outer, and I'm a giver-inner") sound as contemporary as an argument during a couples counseling session.

Ms. Molaskey, who is performing a blend of jazz, theater and pop songs accompanied by family members (her husband, John Pizzarelli, on guitar; his brother, Martin, on bass) and Larry Fuller on piano, also swings. Buoyed by the lilting guitar, she seamlessly carries off a tricky balance between fluid jazz singing and acting. Theirs is a musical marriage made in heaven.

Her balancing act goes beyond juggling swing and theatrical savvy. It is embodied in her voice. Just below a surface bubbling with tenderness and cheer flows a current of sadness; at any moment, you imagine, she might burst into tears. And this sense of a someone who is too smart for her own good holding demons at bay lends her performances a charge of emotional electricity.

The show reached a peak of intensity on Tuesday during a bold pairing of the bossa nova classic "Desafinado," crooned by John Pizzarelli, joined to a Brazilian rendition of Billy Joel's "Summer, Highland Falls" reinvented by Ms. Molaskey as a pensive, Brazilian-style meditation. Expressed softly, this lumpy mouthful of words, originally declaimed by Mr. Joel on his "Turnstiles" album, became a deep Sondheim-worthy reflection on the space between "sadness and euphoria."

As Mr. Pizzarelli quietly chimed in behind her singing fragments of "Desafinado," whose English subtitle is "Slightly Out of Tune," limbo became a place you want to stay for a very long time.

Jessica Molaskey performs through July 1 at the Oak Room of the Algonquin Hotel, 59 West 44th Street, Manhattan; (212) 419-9331.

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