Say Grace for Intensity

Most singers take a while to grip and audience. Not Grace Cosgrove at Panache. From the first delicate notes, you’re riveted to your seat. Cosgrove commands absolute attention, and her material is so creatively conceived and fascinatingly juxtaposed that it approaches performance art.

The whole unpredictable act is a fantastic study in contrast and mood. With a unique approach to standards and dark sense of humor, Cosgrove achieves an effective yet bizarre air that’s absolutely mesmerizing. Willowy movements instill a pulsating quality, and at times she seems to look beyond the audience at phantoms hovering in the room.

Songs are crafted together, blending subtle nuances into larger meaning with over-whelming impact. “Falling In Love Again” brackets a satirical revision of the Snow White Legend.

Cosgrove frames “I Could Have Danced All Night” with two Rndy Newman songs, “I Think It’s Gonna Rain” and “Old Man,” and makes a usually happy song seem achingly sad.

Gentle strains of “Put Your Arms Around Me” melt into James Taylor’s “Millworker,” underscored by passages from “America,” and a stark portrait of modern society emerges.

She follows a provocative rendition of her own saucy ditty, “Get Scratched,” with and incredibly potent, totally traditional rendition of “The Man That Got Away.” It’s eerie, spell binding and bracingly intense.

A unique presence in cabaret, she’s challenging, intelligent and enormously entertaining. Grace Cosgrove doesn’t defy being categorized, she transcends it.

Bob Harrington
New York Post