AFTERTHOUGHTS & FINAL THOUGHTS ON METROSTAR

Tweet this article !

EDITOR’S NOTE:  You can read about Mr. Reid who won the 2010 Manhattan summer singing contest called MetroStar and his competition in the competition.  Here is the more detailed look from our reporter who has been filing reports since the beginning and all are archived here on our website.  The final results placing the summer’s top five finalists were, as previously announced, a combination of the votes on the last two nights. 

That included August 23 --- with the votes of permanent and guest judges and audience votes – and the final night of August 30 with just judge votes: the two permanent judges and four new guest judges.  The audience does not vote on the final evening in order that the votes of the six judges from that night can be made and tallied before the audience and contestants leave.   Some musical entertainment filled the nail-biting time gap.  In previous nights, the more time-consuming counting of points given to three singers by each of the many audience members meant that results had to be posted on the venue’s website very late in the evening.  Here is the final report filed by Kathleen France, a contestant in this Talent Challenge the previous year.

--

Well, none of us knows what we'll do with our Mondays now that the 2010 MetroStar competition has come to a close.  And this year, the third year of the annual event, a guy won for the first time!  When the large pool of singers had come down to seven semi-finalists, T. Oliver Reid had been the only man.  He brought home the trophy.  OK, so there really isn't a trophy, but the grand prize includes a fully produced engagement at Metropolitan Room, as well as a recording of the show.  A Broadway performer in the ensemble of several shows, currently in Mary Poppins, he has an amazing vocal instrument.  T. has an extremely wide range, and captivated me in this competition with his ability to go from singing a soaring, floating and tender falsetto to switching it up to powerful soul singing.  On the final night of competition, the five finalists were asked to sing two songs each.  T. did an amazing arrangement of "Nature Boy" and then the Burt Bacharach/Hal David tune, "The Look Of Love."  Our permanent judges, cabaret reviewers Roy Sander and Rob Lester, were joined by singer KT Sullivan, singer and Metropolitan Room booking manager Tanya Holt, journalist David Noh and Donald Smith who heads The Mabel Mercer Foundation and presents the annual Cabaret Convention.  Both permanent judges commented on how much T. Oliver Reid had grown as a cabaret artist during the rounds.  I agreed with Rob Lester, that he now has more of a connection with the audience and was really playing the whole room. Roy Sander said he really enjoyed how he had a delicate way with the small moments.  Rob Lester mentioned how he played to the whole room.  He seemed more relaxed, too.  I asked T. if he had thought about what kind of a cabaret show he'll be doing.  He told me that he hadn't thought that much about it yet, but I think that whatever he decides, it is going to be great!

First Runner-Up was Cindy Marchionda.  She's spicy, she's sexy, she looked like a winner in her gorgeous silver dress, and she delivered.  In my opinion, Cindy is always so emotionally connected to her work and it is a joy to watch.  She gets me every time.  Her first number was a Jamie Cullum song called "Photograph."   Cindy made me cry this week (yes, I'm a crier) with her interpretation of "If I Sing" by my favorite musical theatre writers, Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire.  Roy Sander thought she had excellent song choices and really appreciated the way she could get big vocally, but still never lost the tenderness of the emotion in the lyric.  Cindy may be “vertically challenged,” as she addressed in “Short People” on two earlier Mondays, but let me tell you, there is nothing small about her performing.  It fills the entire room.

Second-Runner-Up was Amy Beth Williams who has a lovely soprano voice and a maturity that adds a knowing quality to her work.  A music teacher, she started out with a funny character piece about a teacher of third grade with dreams of doing something else, but knows she needs "Something to Fall Back On."  It's kind of a song about learning to deal with disappointment in life.  Her second song was "Simple," from the musical Nine.  Roy Sander expressed how, throughout the competition, Amy Beth has always maintained dignity, majesty and grace.  She even expressed her gratitude in her patter and is just a classy lady.  David Noh, the only guest judge who chose to speak rather than just fill out a ballot, noted her good pitch and liked the way she told the story in her songs.   I loved hearing the variety of the participants this year.  Everyone had different strengths.  Both Cindy and Amy Beth will have guest spots in T. Oliver Reid's winning cabaret show.

Rounding out the Top 5 were Alison Nusbaum and Janice Hall.  Alison – I think of her as “The Rebel" - blazed onto the stage, starting the show off with a repeat performance of "An Old-Fashioned Love Story" from Andrew Lippa’s score to The Wild Party, and then went into a powerful arrangement of "I Am What I Am" from La Cage aux Folles.  Her subtle nuances, and her dry, sarcastic edge are what make her stand out from the rest.  She draws you in and you can't wait to see what little thing she's going to do next.  Like the 2008 and 2009 winners, Anne Steele and Liz Lark Brown, Alison sings regularly at Don't Tell Mama’s piano bar, and she often drops by the Metropolitan Room’s late-night open mic to perform.  Her experience and wit and ability to think on her feet make her special.  Janice Hall, called “the Opera Diva,” by MetroStar host Tom Gamblin, who spent many of her years living abroad, opened with the Amanda McBroom song, "Errol Flynn," and took us to France with her exquisite interpretation of "La vie en rose,” set up with a bit of Cole Porter’s “You Don’t Know Paree.”  It was so incredibly beautiful that many in the audience let out sighs as the last note ended.  The judges said that they enjoyed her artistry and David Noh remarked that her French was flawless.

I am so proud of all of the contestants this year!  They expressed to me that this experience can be stressful and nerve-wracking, but also had so much gratitude for making it this far.  They have all grown, and I look forward to seeing what they go on to do their own shows.  I know that they each have a fan in me.  I'll be the first to make a reservation for their shows!  And another reservation I'll be making is going to see Liz Lark Brown's 2009 MetroStar-winning show.  Liz opened the entire grand finale night with two numbers that she’d performed in the competition rounds last year:  a funny song called "Spoon" her own interpretation of a blend of “Every Breath You Take” and "I Think I Love You" as a … no, I won’t be a spoiler of the surprise for the uninitiated.

During the time lag between the judges decision making and the counting combined with the August 23 results, we had the pleasure of witnessing guest judge KT Sullivan sing the most incredible arrangement I think I have ever heard in my entire life.  There is nothing else like it.  The number was made up of about, oh, I don't know how many titles and parts of songs that were put together to make one big medley, and it actually made sense!  I have no idea how she did it, or how she remembered it all, but it was just unbelievably amazing.  (Editor’s Note: It appears on her new album called Timeless Tunes, and it’s snippets of 29 songs from the year 1929.)  Also in the post-competition slot was singing host Tom Gamblin who performed “Mr. Cellophane” from Kander & Ebb’s Chicago. He’d opened the show with another Kander melody but with new, custom-tailored lyrics by MetroStar judge Rob Lester, turning the musical Cabaret’s “Wilkommen” into a welcome to this cabaret event, singing with MetroStar Musical Director Nate Buccieri.

There were also Rob Lester lyrics for an original song which was the last musical segment of the evening, a comic saga that had just been finished the day before—a collaboration with composer Bill Zeffiro, who was also at the piano for this and KT’s piece.  The writers, inspired by and including references to the weeks of MetroStar, had not even chosen a title for it yet, but the comic piece is about having a competitive nature and winning --- and not winning.  And yours truly (that would be ME!) along with 2009’s top MetroStar runners-up, Danielle Grabianowski and Carole J. Bufford, were awarded the chance to sing it when the work-in-progress got the green light for inclusion a few days before the finale night.  The first year’s second and third-place finalists had been in mind, too, but both these talented people, Nesha Ward and Stearns Matthews, had commitments – they had long-standing jobs in musical theatre shows out of town!  So, we three who’d been in MetroStar and later did shows at Metropolitan Room, were joined by Daryl Glenn.  He’s a former staff member at the club, whose group show, Nashville, played there, Iridium and Feinstein’s at Loews Regency. It won the Bistro Award, the Nightlife Award  and the MAC Award, the trophy for which he’d been directed to bring and shamelessly flaunt in our faces at one point.  We had an absolute ball.