BDSM RTV MEDIA NEWS!!!!


27 november 2009


Not Shy in the Way She Works a Lyric (Baby Jane Dexter)


Source: www.nytimes.com - New York Times - USA


Baby Jane Dexter, a singer with a mighty contralto, makes a persuasive case for uncovering new meanings in songs by wielding lyrics like blunt instruments. There is no beating around the bush for this longtime cabaret performer, whose new show at the Metropolitan Room is aptly named “All About Love” because it covers so many aspects. Her interpretations of everything from Bob Dylan to Rodgers and Hammerstein have the force of body blows.


Singing the plea “Lord above me/Make him love me,” from “I’ve Got It Bad (and That Ain’t Good),” a prayer becomes an impatient demand. In her version of Stephen Sondheim’s “Not a Day Goes By” from “Merrily We Roll Along,” the layers of yearning and sadness that most singers put into it are stripped away to reveal a song whose narrator is in the hellish throes of a romantic obsession that she expects will haunt her for the rest of her life; her interpretation, with its hint of mental illness, is a little scary.
But because Ms. Dexter has a big heart and a broad sense of humor, her assaultive approach to songs, which she delivers in short, aggressive vocal bursts, feels less threatening than unapologetically dramatic and unfailingly honest.

Even more than in her previous shows, Ms. Dexter, accompanied by her longtime pianist, Ross Patterson, evokes an old-time blues and gospel belter before the age of melisma. The Bessie Smith standard, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” which gets a rough-and-ready treatment, inspires a monologue about her bad romantic choices. She used to prefer bad boys over nice guys, she recalls, and offers an amusing (possibly apocryphal) account of an experiment in bondage. She also confesses to a former dependency on the advice found in fortune cookies and newspaper horoscopes.

Ms. Dexter ended her show on Saturday with her signature song, R.E.M.’s “Everybody Hurts,” belted with a fervency that wrapped the audience in a bear hug of compassion and good will.

Baby Jane Dexter continues through Dec. 19 at the Metropolitan Room, 34 West 22nd Street, Flatiron district; (212) 206-0440, metropolitanroom.com.