In the competitive world of singers today, Baby Jane Dexter remains an original. There just isn't another girl singer working in clubs today that can match her. Writers have often referred to her as the real thing. And with good reason. It is the truth. And that truth defines her. She did it the hard way and has emerged as a local legend who has earned her status at the top of the heap. And with this new show, all of New York will get a chance to see that legend in action. Neophytes will get a lesson in how to get it right and seasoned pros will simply nod as they cheer on this great lady of cabaret who touches her audience like few others. Only a handful of honest singers have touched such gold.
Among them, count the likes of some soulful interpreters like the late Phyllis Hyman, the late Eva Cassidy and the luminescent Annie Lennox. And just when one thinks she has out done herself with her last show, Dexter tops herself. Such is the case with her latest must-see entry, All About Love running at Metropolitan Room at Gotham on weekends through December 19. Musical director Ross Patterson outdoes himself with some of the best arrangements he's come up with to date. Ellissa Patterson served as consultant/director. The show is playful, heartfelt and powerful.
It is possibly Dexter's riskiest show and a bit darker than usual. However, it has a throughline about the facets of love. Not the usual sappy fare; the stuff that life is made out of - all sung like a plangent guitar that is killing you softly. The truth in her message is that love is an oxymoron that is complex and emotional with a plethora of erratic highs and lows. Dexter has struck the right balance and it works to perfection with this well chosen mix of words and music by songwriters as diverse as The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Jane Siberry and Stephen Sondheim for starters in an act filled with soulful highlights that tug at the emotions.
Midway through the show Dexter notes, “I've been singing in this town a long time.” And, obviously she's packed a lot of living into those decades. Without saying a thing about the ups and downs of her personal life, one knows she has a few secrets. What she does reveal through her songs is the empowerment of surviving pain - with a nod to the absurdity of it all. This is particularly obvious at the top of the show when she sets the tone for what is to come with the brilliant Gerry Goffin-Carole King reflective Goin' Back (“Long ago, we had our dreams and that was all we needed ... ”) This is followed by the Bob Dylan dirge, Make You Feel My Love (“I think I'm going back to the things I learned so well in my youth ...”) These two beauties set up a lifetime for what follows in the one hour set that will make the observer laugh and cry.
Thankfully, it's not too heavily laden stuff. This time, she's thrown in more than a bow at her inner red-hot mama. A Good Man Is Hard To Find and Duke Ellington's I've Got It Bad And That Ain't Good (co-written with Paul F. Webster) is calculated silliness that is a riot. A more serious highlight is the fusing of Love Hurts (Bourdeux-Bryant) with Sondheim's Not A Day Goes by. This visceral centerpiece of emotions is a journey that is revealing and heartfelt. The result is one of the hour's high spots. Another moment of perfection comes with Siberry's searing Love Is Everything about the pain of lost love.
In the final analysis, All about Love is all about love – and much more. Her restrained patter is refreshing and good humored throughout. For depth and perception, it's all in the songs. And it's all done by this towering talent who has lived it all. It doesn't get much better.