[Dixielandjazz] Rebecca Kilgore reviewed, Wall Street Journal

[Robert Ringwald]

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Rebecca Kilgore: Some Like It Hot: The Music of Marilyn Monroe (Feinstein's at Loews
Regency)
by Will Friedwald
Wall Street Journal, August 12, 2011
>From a distance, the show at Feinstein's this week appears to be a musical tribute
to a nonmusical icon -- the most famous face in the history of American culture.
Yet right off the bat, singer Rebecca Kilgore and tenor saxophonist Harry Allen prove
that, as with Fred Astaire and Shirley Temple, there is indeed a Marilyn Monroe Songbook,
a unique body of music that's no less hers than her own celebrated body. Ms. Kilgore
disavows any similarity with the late Marilyn, but they have more in common than
she admits: an upbeat, sunny personality, a sweet sound and, as performers, a kind
of inner glow that illuminates whatever screen or stage they're on. Yet while Monroe's
singing was "better than all right," in Irving Berlin's memorable phrase, she never
quite broke your heart with a song. Ms. Kilgore is doing just that at least six times
a night at Feinstein's.
The underlying theme in nearly all the music written for Marilyn Monroe is flirtation:
Every song presents her as some combination of a wide-eyed innocent baby doll and
a gold-digging femme fatale. You might assume that her most famous musical role,
in the 1953 "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," established this song-and-screen persona,
but actuality, Ms. Kilgore shows that Monroe was playing a variation on "Lorelei
Lee" in her first lead role, in the 1948 "Ladies of the Chorus," well before "Blondes"
opened on Broadway.
The same thing is true of the pre-existing standards selected for Monroe to sing
onscreen, like "I Wanna Be Loved by You" in "Some Like It Hot" and especially "After
You Get What You Want You Don't Want It." Berlin wrote the latter in 1920, and Nat
King Cole revived it in 1944. Cole updated its humor and swing, but when Monroe sang
it in the 1954 "There's No Business Like Show Business," she added significant levels
of irony, which arose from the empirical evidence that it was impossible to imagine
anybody who wouldn't want her, especially in form-fitting sequins and cinemascope.
Her delivery was at once teasing and forthcoming, giving all but holding back, petulant
and pouty. Ms. Kilgore reconciles both Cole and Monroe, combining his swing with
her flirtatiousness.
Ms. Kilgore's show climaxes with "Some Like It Hot," including three songs from the
classic 1959 comedy, one of which is a sizzling solo on "Runnin' Wild" by Harry Allen.
Yet the high point may be two underappreciated songs from Monroe's final musical,
"Let's Make Love," an odd duck of a vehicle in which she sang with two international
leads, British pop star Frankie Vaughan and suave Frenchman Yves Montand. No one
much liked the picture, but Ms. Kilgore shows that the title song and "Incurably
Romantic" are first-rank Cahn and Van Heusen. She delivers the latter as a sensual
samba, with Mr. Allen digging into his Stan Getz bag.
It's not part of Ms. Kilgore's job description to make a case for Monroe as a vocalist,
though she makes it clear that the screen goddess left a substantial musical legacy.
Of course, Monroe died at 36, and even if she had kept working on her singing for
another 25 years, it's doubtful she'd ever have sounded as good as Ms. Kilgore does
right now.


--Bob Ringwald
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