by Joel Benjamin for Theaterscene.net
Jim
Speake, the affable singer, brought his autobiographical show, Jim Speake Sings My Generation to the cabaret mecca, Don’t Tell Mama. All eighteen songs were decidedly of
Seventies’ vintage and all of them were familiar to those of us in our late
forties and beyond. It was smart
to use material that automatically induced ready-made feelings and images in
his audience. Mr. Speake cleverly sang arrangements--by his Music Director
Steven Ray Watkins--that kept the essence of these songs as we remember them,
yet brought out Mr. Speake’s special persona, which includes a fine,
deliciously rough-edged tenor and a boyishness that bordered on the shy. He is
a slender, handsome man with graying hair, who projects pleasantness to the
n-th degree.
Interspersed
between the songs Mr. Speake spoke of his upbringing in Alabama, his parents, Annie
Lucille & Otto—“spelled the same backwards and forwards!”—and his
unavoidable decision to go out on his own, winding up in New York City where he
has had a reasonably successful career as a singer/actor. Casually dressed in a black blazer,
jeans and white shirt, he presented a gimmick-free program that opened with “Up
Up and Away” and finished with “I’ve Got the Music In Me.” At first he seemed a bit stilted in his
movements, but opened up both vocally and physically with Jim Croce’s “You
Don’t Mess Around with Jim,” to which he added a mini-medley of other
songs. Once warmed up, he still
moved about minimally, but seemed more full-bodied and connected with the
material. By the time he sang the
last three songs, “Solitaire,” by Neil Sedaka, Billy Joel’s “My Life” and the
afore-mentioned “I’ve Got the Music In Me,” by Bias Boshell, he was firmly
committed to the sub-texts of the songs and their meanings and My Generation became a fulfilling
expression of both his strong vocal instrument and his life story.
His
back-up singers, Wendy A. Russell and Lennie Watts (who doubled as the show’s
director) were remarkable in their ease and comraderie. Along with Mr. Watkins on the keyboard
were the terrific musicians Jerry Smith on the drums and Dan Fabricatore on the
bass guitar who let Mr. Speake shine in his own right while keeping the musical
standards high.
JIM SPEAKE SINGS MY
GENERATION
December
14th 2009 at 7:30 PM
Don’t
Tell Mama
343 West
46th St.
New York,
NY
Information
& Reservations: 212-757-0788
& www.DontTellMamaNYC.com
Contact
Jim Speake at www.jimspeake.com
