What a clever idea for a Valentine’s Day cabaret, especially in these cynical times: GET OVER IT! explores the flower-less, loveless side of the holiday with humor and style. Who needs candy and roses when you can hear cheeky songs like He Ain’t Mr. Right or Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover – and nosh on yummy cornbread at Ryles Jazz Club.
Pamela Enders and Wayne Fritsche celebrated “the Martyrdom of St. Valentine” with a mix of traditional and pop songs under the musical direction of Doug Hammer. Enders sailed through the comic material with just the right touch of flirty innuendo. With gorgeous low notes and an ethereal top range, she is as at home with heartbreak (like Irving Berlin’s ironic You Can Have Him) as she is with musical theater numbers like So What? and Mein Herr (from CABARET). Her defiant Mein Herr brought down the house.
Fritsche, too, knows his way around musical theatre, having performed in shows like FIDDLER ON THE ROOF and OLIVER. His voice is as big as his towering stature, which he spoofed in I Enjoy Being a Girl from FLOWER DRUM SONG and used to advantage in the duet with Enders in the all out Enough Is Enough.
The godfather of Boston cabaret, John O’Neil, did the introductions and John Baboian and Steve Chaggaris joined Hammer for the snazzy accompaniment. As Edna St. Vincent Millay famously wrote, “Forget the epitaph. Take up the song!”
