Mercer’s Lyrics Have New Life in the Voice of Lee Lessack

Lee Lessack isn’t just pretending when he sings the Johnny Mercer lyric, “That old blackmagic has me in its spell.” The sorcerer is none other than Mercer himself, casting a spell so potent that Lessack has devoted all of his new cabaret show, at the Cinegrill through Saturday, to the late wordsmith.

It’s a nice pairing of talents. Mercer, who died in 1976 at age 66, had a gift for capturing great depths of meaning in a few simple words, and the Los Angeles-based Lessack--who, at 37, has a growing national reputation and two solo albums--does much the same as he subtly shades and shimmers his voice to convey feeling.

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In “That Old Black Magic” in Tuesday’s opening show, for instance, his voice flickered in a way that suggested he really was “aflame with such a burning desire / that only your kiss”--and here, he all but kissed that word--”can put out the fire.”

His tone is still more remarkable: He floats phrases in a sort of half-whisper, his dusky tenor rippling with just a touch of vibrato. (Unfortunately, his too-heavy miking on Tuesday nearly spoiled the effect.)

Prepared with the guidance of theater director David Galligan, the show is nicely paced among love songs (“I Thought About You,” “Skylark”), novelty songs (“Pineapple Pete,” “Whatcha-Ma-Call-It”) and autumnal tunes (“Autumn Leaves,” “Whistling Away the Dark”). Accompanist John Boswell contributes gorgeous arrangements.

If there’s a problem, it’s that the shade-over-an-hourlong program leaves us wanting so much more--more verses of the songs breezed over, and more substantive detail about Mercer’s life in the between-song remarks.

BE THERE

Lee Lessack’s “Too Marvelous for Words: The Songs of Johnny Mercer,” through Saturday at the Cinegrill, Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, 7000 Hollywood Blvd., 8 p.m. $20 cover plus $10 minimum. Information: (323) 466-7000.