Previously published in NiteLifeExchange
Show 1, Nathalie Douglas
Something incredible happens when close, dear friends get together on stage to perform. Those times when the accompanist waits for the soloist to dry her tears and take a deep cleansing breath or two, there is a chemical change that every heart in the room feels.
Musical Director and brilliant pianist Mark Hartman brought to Vallarta the woman he met in NYC in 1997 to sing with him and participate in the first Fiesta de Cabaret. Nathalie Douglas has been tagged globally with every superlative in the English language, and I can’t find words unique enough to describe her better than what has already been written.
Her song repertoire last night in the Casa Karma Red Room was from The Sixties, meaning protest songs in the purest sense of that genre. With Vietnam War anthems and multiple assassination rages to choose from, Natalie settled on poignant over angry and sweet over bitter lyrics. She is too young to have lived through those times, but her delivery and respectfulness for the lyrics had me riveted to every word she sang. And I remembered every word and heard them for the first time last night.
Natalie has a powerhouse voice and a formidable presence on stage yet delicately, like a whisper of air, sang The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face. Her history of each song proved her to be an industrious researcher with funny, off-the-cuff humor used when appropriate.
I will look for Natalie’s return to Vallarta in January; what songs she will sing won’t matter. To me, the familiarity or strangeness of the songs won’t matter either. They will all be brand new and pristine as fresh snowflakes falling from Natalie Douglas’s heart into yours.
Show 2, David Sabella
The second concert of the Fiesta de Cabaret series in Vallarta featured David Sabella, who played Mary Sunshine for a decade in Chicago, The Musical.
Sabella relived for us the moments leading up to auditioning for and landing the dream job of a lifetime. On Broadway, shoulder to shoulder with some of the best in the business. It was a success beyond his wildest imaginings until even that, after a few glory years, was no longer enough. During that time, Sabella married his lover in Massachusetts, one of the first gay couples to do so in the US, and embarked on yet another trailblazing journey to adopt their family. Twenty years later, the emotional rollercoaster remains of falling in love with an abruptly abandoned baby girl to another child given, loved, then taken back; we could hear David’s heart break.
The storytelling was interwoven with snapping fingers and divine synchronicity on the piano by Maestro David Maiocco. The two Ds have been friends for 30 years; their collaborations run smoothly as silk onstage.
Razzle Dazzle is an incredibly moving triumph, a retrospect of multiple successes achieved by jumping through extremely complicated hoops.
Today, David Sabella lives in Puerto Vallarta, thousands of miles from Broadway, and he is still showing the world what a first-rate sorcerer he is. A star.
Show 3, Tracy Stark
Singer/Songwriter Tracy Stark walked into the Casa Karma Red Room, sat at the piano and asked if everyone could see her okay. From my front-row seat, I could see from her nose up to her wildcat hair. All you really need to see in people is their eyes, so my line of sight was perfect.
Ms. Stark explained at the beginning of her show that she had put together a playlist of her favorite songs by her favorite songwriters, and each one carried especially memorable melodies and/or lyrics. She also included a direct quote for most of them that summed up their bodies of work.
Tracy was particularly enamored and influenced by both Ricky Lee Jones and Joni Mitchell. I was enamored listening to Tracy’s voice run up and down with the tricky timing and odd syncopation of Ricky Lee’s lyrics, with the smile never leaving her face. I could only see that smile in her eyes and the unruly head of hair bobbing and weaving in time.
When Tracy spoke, her words tumbled out of her mouth, often not fast enough to keep up with her train of thought as one revelation after another popped into her head. I thought she was charming and eminently huggable.
I hope to see more of this effervescent talent, who has won 13 MAC Awards and counting, during the remainder of the Fiesta de Cabaret. She is a joy.
