France, romance theme of LOOK Valentine's Cabaret on Sunday
BY JAMES D. WATTS JR. World Scene Writer
Thursday, February 07, 2013
2/07/13 at 4:57 AM
Andrea Leap decided this year, for Valentine's Day, it was time to get back to the basics of romance.
Leap has created and performed a special cabaret show as a benefit for LOOK Musical Theatre since 2005, and the themes that have linked the various songs together have ranged from weather to insanity, from pets to romantic regrets.
But the 2013 LOOK Valentine's Cabaret will hark back to Leap's days in the city most associated with romance - Paris.
"It's going to be a show about falling in love in France and falling in love with France," Leap said. "Years ago I received a grant to spend time in France studying cabaret, and this was a show I put together after I returned.
"I had all these piles and piles of sheet music in my apartment, and I kept rearranging them in different configurations, over and over and over," she said, laughing. "So I suppose this show sort of evolved out of that."
In addition to the cabaret performance, the evening will include a dinner catered by the Palace Cafe and dessert with champagne after the show.
Although that earlier show was the inspiration for what Leap will do in Tulsa, with LOOK artistic director Eric Gibson accompanying her on piano, she said: "Everything has been drastically overhauled, newly edited, hashed and rehashed again.
"One of the main differences is that I was lot younger when I did that first show, so the perspective has definitely changed," Leap said. "And the ideas of falling in love while in France and falling in love with France can become very intertwined, which is something that can be difficult to tease out when you're living in the middle of it all."
The show will mix some well-known songs with others that are more obscure. For example, Leap will be performing a song by a Minneapolis composer named David Frishberg.
"It's a send-up of all things French, and it's hilarious," she said, "but it's also done in such a way that you can sense the real love for the place that underlies all the jokes."
She will also perform "La Vie en Rose," Edith Piaf's signature song.
"It's one of those songs you cannot avoid in a show like this," Leap said. "The funny thing is, when you look at the song on the page, it doesn't really look like much. It's only when you start to sing it that you realize, this is really a great song."
Leap will perform songs in English and French, adding that those who do not understand the French language will be able from the context of the songs to understand how they fit into the show's narrative.
"A lot of these will be used more like underscoring because they evoke the atmosphere I want," she said. "There's a song called 'A, Paris,' that is the quintessential French song - you hear eight bars of it, and you're there, listening to an accordion player in the Metro station."
Original Print Headline: France and falling in love
James D. Watts Jr. 918-581-8478
james.watts@tulsaworld.com
Associated Images:
Andrea Leap has created and performed a special cabaret show as a benefit for LOOK Musical Theatre since 2005. Courtesy
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