There’s magic at Rainbow and Stars, with a hot cappuccino and a sharp, swingin’ cabaret artiste who works the crowd with a sweep of her head and the glint of her bugle beads.
Though a foggy night clouded the window view atop floor 65 of Rockefeller Center, this was still the place to celebrate autumn’s arrival in New York, with Ann Hampton Callaway the ideal hostess to usher the season in.
The opening uptempo numbers didn’t quite connect (Callaway’s high notes are on key, but they’re vibrato-less and not pretty), but the songstress found her element when “September Song” rolled into a smoky and delicious “Lazy Summer Afternoon.” After her voice warmed up, we were treated to some accomplished scat singing. Here, the high notes were no problem, since they were touched momentarily and then flitted away from, instead of held for emotional effect.
One of Callaway’s great strengths is her ability to be funny, as she is on her own “Mood Swing” (co-written with Lindy Robbins), about the comatose-to-hyperspeed energy shifts a human goes through in an average day. Dazzling, too, is her ability to “mad-lib” a song from audience suggestions, this time fashioning a love song based on such words as “time,” “love,” “trouble,” and, of course, “Manuel Noriega” (that one courtesy of bass player David Fink). Portia Nelson’s “I’m in Hate/Love with New York” offered the expected laughs of recognition, while Sondheim’s “Not a Day Goes By” raised goosebumps so high, one could hear sleeves tearing.
