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Cabaret Rebel
with Beth Wilmurt

SF Bay Guardian April 28, 2004 (Robert Avila)
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Art Street Theater presents cofounder Beth Wilmurt's outré cabaret, a reprise of the widely hailed performance piece she conceived for EXIT Theatre's 2003 DIVAfest. Wryly off-kilter but never off-key, the show begins with a faintly frazzled songstress, in jeans and T-shirt, unhitching her backpack and attempting what she readily acknowledges is the necessary stage banter, before sailing off into an eclectic 60-minute set that runs the gamut from Rogers and Hart to Nick Lowe (with a liberal, leavening dose of Harry Nilsson thrown in for several good measures). Accompanied by the versatile David Malloy (piano, accordion) and David Babich (percussion, guitar, clarinet) - with additional piano accompaniment by Natalie Grant-Villegas - Wilmurt imbues her clear, competent voice with a range of dramatic color and musical nuance. Throughout a deceptively laid-back session that never fails to charm, Art Street's Mark Jackson contributes directorial assistance to some simple but effective staging, while Jason Ries shows what a little mood lighting can do. If Cabaret Rebel makes a pretension of unpretension, it's to the thoroughly delighting end of playfully reconfiguring the conceits of the form, and in the process opening it up to a fresh theatrical imagination.
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