It’s been said that life is a cabaret. But what exactly is a cabaret? Ask storyteller and performer Beverly Buck Brennan, and she’ll list three key things: a singer, a piano and someone to play it.
“Cabaret also, by definition, is about getting to know the performer personally,” the lifelong St. Louisan told host Don Marsh on Tuesday’s St. Louis on the Air. “It’s not like you’re in a musical or you’re playing a character – you’re just you up there, which I had to learn about … I had to really pull back [from musical-theater training] … and try to mellow out and be really in a conversation with the audience.”
Brennan began pursuing cabaret several years ago after teaching for many years in St. Louis Public Schools and at Harris-Stowe State University. Her upcoming show “Love and Marriage,” which she describes as “an inside take on long-term relationships – the good, the bad and the outrageously funny,” will take place Friday evening at the Kranzberg Arts Center.
The event will include songs, stories and humor, drawing on the Great American Songbook as well as musical theater and a variety of classic hits. New York City-based singer/songwriter Rick Jensen is the musical director and accompanist for Brennan’s show, and Lina Koutrakos and Ken Haller are its co-directors.
Brennan, who is the eldest child of the late Jack Buck, touched on one of her well-known father’s lesser-known talents during the interview.
“Back in the day, he was known at the piano bars in Gaslight Square,” Brennan said. “And he was known to throw some parties, and he loved to hire live musicians … and then at the end of the evening he would always sing ‘The Party’s Over,’ and he would announce, ‘You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.’”
Related Event
What: Love and Marriage – Beverly Brennan
When: 8 p.m. Friday, March 22, 2019
Where: Kranzberg Arts Center (501 N. Grand Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63103)
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