Amanda McBroom
Where: The Barns at Wolf Trap
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Info: $25; 877-965-3872; wolftrap.org
When Variety pronounced Amanda McBroom “the finest cabaret performer of her generation,” it was not news to her avid fans. Now she has capped her reputation with “Chanson,” a collection of songs by Jacques Brel, the Belgian singer/songwriter who spent most of his life in France.
Her intimate show in the Barns of Wolf Trap will feature selections from the CD and some of her own compositions.
Direct from the University of Texas where she had been a drama major, McBroom performed in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. While there, she made a side trip to San Francisco to see the 1969 production of “Jacque Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris.” She had never heard of Brel or his music, but she was so captivated that she auditioned, was hired as understudy (later promoted to star), and toured with the show in this country and abroad. She also married a fellow cast member along the way.
“I’ve spent so much time writing and singing my own stuff that I put the Brel recording on the back burner until now,” she said. “He’s the best storyteller I know and his lyrics turn each song into a one-act play. I love to present them in an intimate room like the Barns because I can see all the faces.”
During the 1970s, McBroom emulated her father, actor David Bruce, by pursuing a television career. Despite recurring roles in “Hawaii Five-O,” “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” “Starsky & Hutch” and a host of other popular series, she never abandoned her fondness for Brel or a childhood dream of becoming another Liza Minnelli.
Her dreams coincided in 1978 when her inexplicable inspiration to pen “The Rose” made the soundtrack of the film by the same name based on the life of Janis Joplin. Bette Midler’s vocal zoomed to the top of the charts and McBroom began composing and channeling the spirit of Brel in earnest.
Once she delivered “The Rose” in her own inimitable style on several television shows, she won recognition as a songwriter to watch. Today she excels as a Broadway star, concert artist and composer of songs that stir the emotions. Currently, she and pianist Michele Brourman are putting the final touches on a Broadway musical based on the film “Dangerous Beauty” about the life of Veronica Franco, a beautiful courtesan and poet of 16th century Venice.
