Passion Torches the Material

How’s this for a spotlight item in an evening of cabaret: actress Dixie Carter singing and playing harmonica on Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right,” then, for good measure, adding “Just Like a Woman” and Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m on Fire.”

Hard to imagine? Yes, but that’s exactly what happened Thursday night during the opening performance of Carter’s three-night run at the Founders Hall Cabaret Club in the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

And, despite the results, Carter should at least be commended for her willingness to come up with a cabaret act that reaches beyond the familiar collection of Broadway show tunes and special material.

The problem is that Carter’s renderings of the Dylan tunes were really not all that different from her interpretations of such standards as “I’m Old Fashioned” and “This Can’t Be Love.”

That is, they were highly dramatic renderings in which the medium took precedence over the message. In virtually every tune, Carter imposed herself on the material to such an extent that the songs were overwhelmed by the sheer force of her theatrical presence.

There’s nothing wrong with that kind of presentation on the musical stage or in a television sitcom. And Carter’s forceful qualities served her well in her role as Julia Sugarbaker in the TV sitcom “Designing Women,” as well as in her numerous stage appearances (most recently as Maria Callas in Terrence McNally’s “Master Class”).

But cabaret is a smaller, more intimate medium, calling for a subtle connection between performer and audience--one in which listeners have a sense of sharing rather than simply observing.

And, to Carter’s credit, in her lighter, more spontaneous moments--especially when she was telling tales about her Tennessee childhood and the diva personality slipped aside--she was extremely effective. Her mention of her tendency toward “tangential non sequiturs” was a perfect description for what worked best about her performance.

Unfortunately, Carter elected to conclude the set with a long, strikingly melodramatic tour through a collection of unrelated tunes, the Dylan and Springsteen numbers among them, as well as “Someone to Watch Over Me” and “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.”

Growing increasingly more intense as the songs unfolded, she eventually abandoned every aspect of lightheartedness in favor of tearful, emotional climaxes.

Potentially effective as theater, her act remained far too long in a one-note emotional framework to work as cabaret. And that was regrettable, given Carter’s intention to do an imaginative cabaret turn, and her obvious ability--in the moments when she dropped her actor’s persona--to be an effective, intimate, one-on-one performer.