On Saturday, September 13th I was back at DON'T TELL MAMA at 5:00 pm for Ray Marsilio's TOUCHSTONES show, with Rick Jensen as musical director and direction by Lina Koutrakos. I have an apology to make - with "Fashion Week" causing uptown traffic delays on Sixth Avenue, a street fair closing Eighth Avenue from 14th Street to 23rd Street, and construction closing two of four lanes on 14th Street between Sixth & Seventh Avenue, it took me over 90 minutes to get to MAMA'S from home, rather than the usual 45 minutes (I always plan an hour so as not to be late). Thus I missed the first several songs in Ray's show, and of course "the setup."
So it would not be fair for me to review the event as a full show - so I will confine my comments to the very talented Mr. Marsilio. Hailing from the Trenton/Philadelphia area, I had never had the opportunity to see this performer before. So I never had a chance to hear his terrific velveteen vocals. Classically trained (he gave a sample of his opera chops in the show), Mr. Marsilio truly has one of the finest vocal instruments in cabaret today. And he doesn't always take the safe route when making his song choices - his performance of Jason Robert Browns' very difficult to interpret "I'm Not Afraid of Anything" was a new approach that gave a new slant on the lyrics - and it worked!
My big regret was that I wasn't there from the start of the show - hopefully Mr. Marsilio will return soon.
