Tension and nervousness filled the air, belying chuckling “I’m just kidding” comments.  When cheers met fears, the fan club in the nightclub became so vocal we couldn’t hear the vocalist’s opening lyric. (Mic  problem?) She exited, re-entered, flippantly asserting, “I didn’t wait 15 years to come back to a New York club to f—k up the opening!!”  That song’s key lyric was “Start all over again” (“Pick Yourself Up”). Ironic? Cutely planned? Pia Zadora chastised the top-drawer musicians, then laughed that off, but things felt uneasy. She seemingly had no cause to be caustic/passive-aggressive. Random off-notes suggested a “Pitch Optional” policy. Navigation of melodic lines was super-cautious; long stretches of near talk-singing, then  ---suddenly-- big, big belted pow-wow!-erful endings.  (There are just two extremes, don’t picture a Zadorian gray area.) Super-splashy arrangements, struts, sex-kitten flirtations, muchos glitz, costume change, schmaltz, creaky jokes --- all very Vegas. Playful references about multiple marriages got laughs; what began to cloy was being coy about her age –unintentionally (?) revealed eventually.

Strutting Pia dazzled, but seemed frazzled between soaring moments. And I’m glad I was there! A kind of fun Un-Reality, this NYC comeback had an Event feeling. Yahoo!/Yippeee!/(and Yikes!).

Rob Lester
Cabaret Scenes
February 7, 2013
www.cabaretscenes.org