Cabaret West Member Chat:
Marcovicci On Mercer

My real delight was that this was a commission project. The Savannah Music Festival commissioned me to create the Mercer show. I did more research for this show than for any other since the World War II show. Although I knew his songs very well and I had many of his songs in other shows, I really didn't know the full range of feeling in them. Since they are placed in my show in a biographical order, I was able to find a richness in them that I might not have otherwise done.

I was able to go Savannah and meet his niece and his family members who are around, see his childhood home, his summer home and Moon River, which was called Back River then. To be in the same places that inspired him enabled me to make this show richer than I ever could have dreamed possible. It was beyond anything I could have done on my own. I interviewed Ginny Mancini, Alan & Marilyn Bergman, Gene Lees and others. This was really a major project for me. I got a picture of him that was well-rounded, I hope.

My show was part of the Savannah Festival and I had five shows in seven days. After the very first show, which was completely sold, the audience grew so that by the last day there was absolutely no capacity. The people who came to see me had actually met him or known him. They adored him so it was an enormous responsibility to live up to what they wanted and I'm relieved to say that it made them very happy, especially his niece. She said that 'Uncle Bubba' would have loved it. I had trouble wrapping my lips around that. I never thought I would say anything called 'Uncle Bubba!' It gave me a very poignant feeling about him and about them and about the music. Sometimes I do have to go to the dark side, but I will do it as delicately as possible.

Clearly the show is much tighter and sharper than it was when I previewed it at the Gardenia earlier this year. The order is slightly different and the stories are finally honed. A friend of mine in Savannah said that it was the favorite show of his, since the World War II show. It has some things in common with that show. The songs range from swing to sadness. I'm thrilled to get another crack at it. We have to keep our sense of what is important in this world and these songs have so much to say.

Andrea Marcovicci will be
bringing her
Mercer Show
back to
the Gardenia
for 3 nights only, beginning on
Thursday, September 24

Reservations are essential:
((323) 467-7444)