Latest Press Reviews
- New York - April 11, 2008
NEW YORK POST
She Lets the Good Times Roll
By Frank Scheck
IF they ever make a bio pic about Marilyn Maye, the third act is already in place.
In her early days, she was a sensation - with hit records for RCA, 76 appearances on “The Tonight Show” and a 1965 Grammy nod for Best New Artist (she lost to Tom Jones).
But in the early '90s, the brassy-voiced dynamo seemed to disappear, at least from these parts, until last year - when she returned for three highly acclaimed shows at the intimate Metropolitan Room.
Now she’s back, celebrating her birthday with a show aptly called “It’s My Party...And I’ll Sing 'Cause I Want To,” demonstrating how the years have done little to diminish her amazing abilities.
Vivacious and salty, Maye delivers a celebratory selection of songs that let her swing as well as mine the tender emotion from a ballad.
Don't expect any pathos or self-pitying ruminations here. With such numbers as “Let the Good Times Roll,” “Walkin' Happy” and “That's Life,” she joyously lets us know that there’s little room in her thinking for regrets.
"If you can’t have fun, quit," she declares at one point, and her joyfulness at performing is apparent from her high-fiving walk through the crowd singing “Celebrate Good Times” to her age-defying high kicks during Jerry Herman's “It's Today.”
Beautifully backed by a trio headed by pianist Billy Stritch, Maye is a living testament that, when it comes to talent - echoes of Duke Ellington - age don't mean a thing.
