JUMP / CUT

Metropolitan Room
New York, NY

If Grace Cosgrove hadn’t demonstrated her appealing way with songs several years ago, Jump/Cut could have been a grade-B movie scenario, where the unknown understudy suddenly gets her big chance to play the lead, and the critics go wild.
Still, even though she was no neophyte, at least a bit of the plot does fit. The Metropolitan Room had planned a major performer who had to cancel his dates just weeks before they were scheduled. Eric Michael Gillett, who’d been working with Grace Cosgrove on a new show – her first in almost four years – recommended her to the room as a substitute, and on short notice she stepped in to take over.

And take over is exactly what Cosgrove did. With the talented accompaniment of Musical Director Tedd Firth and Steve Doyle on bass, Cosgrove captivated her audience. Firth is one of cabaret’s finest jazz pianist/accompanists, and Doyle’s solo backing on David Shire’s “Back on Bass,” was one of the night’s highlights. Vocally, Cosgrove is as smooth as butter and shifts gears as effortlessly as a six-speed automatic, alternately kittenish, moody, and moving, and often lending her songs a spiritual quality. She could also be genuinely funny, such as her pairing of “You’ll Never Know” with “Rubber Ducky,” her playful rendition of Joe Kerr’s “I Kind of Like It Here in France,” or the unexpected inclusion of a kazoo as she sang Carl Martin’s “Barnyard Dance.”

Cosgrove and Jump/Cut are back at The Metropolitan Room on Tuesday, February 26th.

Peter Leavy
Cabaret Scenes
February 19, 2008
www.cabaretscenes.org