I could have kicked myself in the pants
when I missed catching one of Catherin Kolos’ two performances of Mood for
Love at the Greer Cabaret Theater when it played last January.
The sold-out shows examined how we define love through our
lives via specially selected songs and personal stories about Kolos’ own life
experiences. Unfortunately, I was unable to make either performance.
My eyes really popped when I found out that she was going
to debut a newly created cabaret-style performance as part of the Saturday
Soiree Series at the Andrew Carnegie Free Library and Music Hall in Carnegie.
The Saturday evening performance titled Wicked Wordplay was fresh out of
the box, a debut performance of song and narrative that retells some of her
experiences from her very eventful past year.
“Each of these songs intrigues with a clever linguistic
twist or has a
conversation between their music and lyrics: much like reality and our emotions
have conversations in real life,” she said in her introductory remarks.
Selections are taken from the Great American Songbook as
well as contemporary songs by modern composers. On the program is everything
from jazz and musical theatre to the edge of pop and rock and a finale
celebrating the “witchy” magic of some of music’s most enchanting storytellers.
Accompanied by electronic keyboardist, Shelby Williams,
former music director at Pittsburgh CAPA, Kolos kicks off her show with Betty
Comden/Adolph Greene/Jules Styne’s “If You Hadn’t But You Did,” a bittersweet
tune about a philandering lover.
After talking about the fast pace of American life,
especially that of an actor or entertainer, she follows up with Billy Joel’s Vienna,
a melodic admonition to slow down before
you burn out.
One section of her show deals with one of the highlights of
her year when she made her New York debut at Birdland Jazz, a historic Big
Apple jazz club. This gave her the opportunity
to share a stage with cabaret legends Jim Caruso and grammy-award winner, Billy
Stritch, not once but 3 times.
Calling
her song selection “the spark for the whole show,” she then segued into the
playfully suggestive “I Can Cook Too.”
Throughout
the show she makes contact with the audience with sparkling eyes, a smiling
face when called for and oodles of warmth and personality. She comes off both
as sensitive but also one who can hold her own when crossed.
In
this performance, her long brown hair dangled down to the shoulders of her dark
green, low cut dress that reminded me of the now infamous line uttered by Bette
Midler at one of the Golden Globes Award ceremonies. (If you don’t know, Google
it).
Following
a tribute to songstress Sara Bareilles (“Between the Lines” and Stephen
Sondheim’s “Moments in the Woods”), she moves in earnest into a Sondheim
segment with “I Remember” from Evening Primrose and “Could I Leave You”
from Follies.
Following
intermission, Kolos covers more of her most intensely emotional and poignant moments
of the past year – her long theatrical experience and collaboration with her
beloved friend Brian Edwards, who died this past July, of her work this summer
as production stage manager for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival and of a
whirlwind romance that eventually faltered, condensed in song with Madonna and
Baby Face’s Take a Bow.
What
would a WICKED show be without a bit of witchcraft Kolos asks near curtain. She
answers that perplexing question with a spellbinding rendition of Devon Cole’s W.I,T.C.H.
and Fleetwood Mac’s Silver Springs.
For
an inspirational finale, Kolos chose to close her show with “You Gotta Be,” an
advisory tune by Des’ree who calls it “a song about trying to figure out who
you are.”
In
her performance, Kolos traces who she is by condensing many of her recent
experiences of the past year in a moving look back at how 2025 affected her on
a personal level.
As
the song’s lyric say:
Listen as your day unfolds
Challenge what the
future holds
Try and keep your
head up to the sky
Lovers, they may
cause you tears
Go ahead, release
your fears
Stand up and be
counted
Don't be ashamed
to cry.
“Cabaret
performance is a deeply personal art form, and as Brian {Edward} told me when
we were workshopping “Mood for Love,’ ‘No one can tell your story like you,’ “ Kolos said
“To
continue to have the opportunity to share glimpses of my life in this medium
and to journey through the process of creating something new each year is an
adventure I never want to quit.”
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