Audience kicks back with talented songwriters in Jazz Cabaret

Listening to Suzanne Vega and Duncan Sheik perform for two hours at the Jazz Cabaret in The Smith Center on Sunday was like spending time in a therapeutic hot tub. All that mellowness cleared out aggression. Both suggest roots firmly entrenched in folk/light pop, although they demonstrated an ability to do much more.

The program was a mish-mash of old and new, with perhaps the highlight being the performance of three numbers slated for an upcoming show about the troubled Southern writer Carson McCullers. (In theater circles, Sheik is best known for his Tony-winning score of "Spring Awakening," a very adult tale about sexual coming-of-age.)

Things got off to an unassuming start with Sheik wandering on stage and offering a meek, "Hello." He continued: "I went running this morning at about 8 north of here, on Main Street, so you can imagine how Gothic I’m feeling."

Songs suddenly sprung forth when Sheik seemed to run out of small talk. He offered a moving rendition of "Wishful Thinking," from "Great Expectations," and gentle numbers about romantic reconciliation and regret. The audience was obviously familiar with his "Courageî album and cheered whenever he mentioned it.

Some at my table found Sheik disorganized and too enamored of anti-Vegas jokes. But I thought he came off like an ordinary guy who’s just decided to get off the street for a short while to make some music. And his near-whisper pinings made him anything but ordinary.

The second act was devoted to Vega, who has much more poise as a performer, but, like Sheik, seems like a treasure you’d find in a Greenwich Village coffee shop. You can’t help but think Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell when you listen to her vulnerable, unaffected voice. She shared some autobiographical songs, and you sensed that the lyrics meant a lot to her.

Both then set up their numbers from their project on McCullers: a worthy subject of a musical if ever there was one. They talked about the writer’s determination to become a success, and how she achieved that with the book "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" at the age of 22 — followed by "Reflections in a Golden Eye," "Member of the Wedding" and "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe." Vega pointed out McCullers was often ill, unhappy in love and died young.

She began with "New York is My Destination," McCullers’ vow to leave Georgia and become a famous writer. This segued appropriately into a tender ballad written to a fellow writer she was apparently in love with, called "Anne-Marie." These "nice" songs were capped by a humorously vicious tirade against other writers of her generation.

I spotted a few young men with a "Spring Awakening" playbill in their hand, hoping that Sheik would sign them. But the audience got much more than a few autographs. This was a relaxing evening, with lots of pulse: simply put together and yet full of acute observation and richly understated sound.

Anthony Del Valle can be reached at vegastheaterchat@aol.com. You can write him c/o Las Vegas Review-Journal, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.