Wilson Brings Insight to Her Storytelling

Cabaret singers, at their best, can be the true storytellers of popular music. In their own unique fashion, they preserve the most meaningful expressions of 20th century song with the same respect for their universal values that folk singers have always found in traditional works.

And when the performers are mature artists, long familiar with the songs and their origins, the significance and the impact of their presentations are all the more valuable.

Julie Wilson’s performance Wednesday night at the Cinegrill in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel was a case in point. The veteran singer, now in her 70s, brought insight, understanding and an ineffable sense of whimsy to a program she appropriately chose to title “Woman.”

Wilson--slender, her hair pulled back into her trademark bun, wearing black with the occasional dramatic addition of a feathered boa--was the consummate storyteller. In songs that ranged from Sondheim to the Bergmans with numerous stops along the way, she laid out a kind of emotional survey of her subject through song and anecdote. The impact of numbers such as “Pretty Women” and “Ladies Who Lunch” was particularly telling, coming from a performer who is deeply familiar with the Sondheim genre. But she was equally telling in more lyrical, more sentimental numbers such as “You Must Believe in Spring.”

And then, with the wisdom of a teller of living history who realizes that the acerbic and the romantic are more effective if they are balanced with wit and humor, she dipped into a comedic medley of songs based on women’s names: “Marie,” “Tangerine,” “Hello, Dolly!”

Wilson has starred on Broadway in shows such as “Kiss Me, Kate,” “The Pajama Game” and “Kismet.” But for the past decade, her most important work has been in the cabaret venue, where she has achieved near legendary status in such classic New York locations as the Russian Tea Room, the Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel and the Cafe Carlyle.

Her performance at the Cinegrill more than justifies that status. If her voice is a bit rougher than it was a decade ago, it nonetheless resonates with the deep authority of life experience, with the capacity to communicate--in direct, intimate, telling fashion--the musical tales that have been the soundtrack to 20th century American life.

* Julie Wilson at the Hollywood Roosevelt Cinegrill, 7000 Hollywood Blvd. Tonight-Saturday and Tuesday-May 10, 8 p.m. $15, Tuesdays through Thursdays; $20, Fridays and Saturdays. $10 minimum purchase. (213) 466-7000.