Meg Flather – ‘Epiphany’ – Heart & Candor

By Alix Cohen

Meg Flather doesn’t just sing, she communicates.If she’s ever looked directly at you during a song, you’ll know what I mean.This is a courageous aspect of cabaret. Selections are made to share not just a ‘theme’- tonight is epiphanies- but a moment in her life. Even when a song is familiar, she brings personal experience to performance.

“I define epiphany as a moment when an individual steps out of a situation and views it for the first time.” Did I mention, she’s clever? Who else would notice, let alone assemble choices based on this observation?

“Chanson” (Stephen Schwartz) arrives resonant. Its last verse becomes a springboard for tonight’s arc.: And since life is the cry of a gull and the taste of your stew/And the way that he feels when he touches you/Now your whole life is different/Now your whole life is new…

Richard Maltby Jr./David Shire’s “One Step” arrives vaudevillian. Shoulders punctuate; arms are at her sides, hands flat out, parallel to the floor. A top hat repeatedly almost gets onto her head- until it does. Flather’s story about apprenticeship in summer stock has droll charm.

“Lion Tamer” (Stephen Schwartz) also bridges – with its last verse: Please let me be a lion tamer./If I could be a lion tamer,/Wouldn’t he have to finally notice me? Taking it down a notch would better show vulnerability. “Anyone Can Whistle” (Stephen Sondheim) is deftly inhabited, but again, might be quieter.

Lionel Bart’s “Reviewing the Situation” teeters on bombastic. Flather is both Dickensian Fagin and her most dramatic, frustrated self. Extravagantly theatrical, the emotional impasse pinwheels with sharp phrasing and musical calibration.

“Sometimes in need of an elusive epiphany, one draws on a dream,” introduces a lovely arrangement of Craig Carnelia’s “Diamonds,” traditionally sung by a man. In response to its predecessor, the baseball metaphor points out “it’s your turn at bat”- how frightening, how exciting! Flathers, the artist notes, “do not run.” What happens when one does?! A ball game anecdote is winningly personal.

“One of the universal epiphanies has to do with love and break-up. When you finally meet ‘the person’, you might be the last to know.”

“I’m Not At All in Love” (Richard Adler/Jerry Ross) with Stark offering appealing back-up as ‘the girls’, a reluctant “I’ve Grown Accustomed to His Face” (Frederick Loewe/Alan Jay Lerner), and an inviting “They Were You” (Tom Jones/Harvey Schmidt) exemplify dialects of love.

A single political tangent is the only questionable succession in this beautifully sequenced show. Flather tells us that watching The Fantasticks (Tom Jones.Harvey Schmidt) she found herself thinking ‘this could all be taken away’. We then hear “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” (John Kander/Fred Ebb) Back rigid, hand in a fist she circles the stage. Performance is vivid and unnerving, vocal is resolute.Its evocation seems unlikely, but who knows?

Songs about growing up/parental relations bring the show to a close. Maury Yeston’s “Getting Tall”: Learning more, knowing less /Simple words, tenderness /Part of getting tall… is particularly touching. Piano emerges a beating heart.
“A Change in Me” (Alan Menken/Howard Ashman) leaves us with Meg Flather’s own epiphany: No change of heart/A change in me…sings the probing artist.

The show opens with a verse in poor French which could successfully be omitted.

Tracy Stark has once again written bespoke arrangements. Vocal harmony is an engaging addition.

Opening Photo- Jeff Harnar

All quotes are Meg Flather
Meg Flather- Epiphany
MD/Piano/Vocals- Tracy Stark
Director- Lenny Watts
Don’t Tell Mama 343 West 46th Street