{"id":1312,"date":"2013-01-19T16:54:59","date_gmt":"2013-01-19T16:54:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peggylee.com\/wp\/?p=1312"},"modified":"2021-08-04T10:19:10","modified_gmt":"2021-08-04T14:19:10","slug":"a-fever-pitch-comeback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peggylee.com\/a-fever-pitch-comeback\/","title":{"rendered":"A ‘Fever’-Pitch Comeback"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n by Howard Kissel<\/p>\n

Only in Hollywood movies, I had always supposed, do you see a frazzled maitre d\u2019 hoisting tiny tables over crowds and jamming them into the already tight spots between the tables to squeeze in patrons desperate to get into a nightclub. But that was exactly the scene the other night at Club 53 in the Hilton as a crowd clamored to see Peggy Lee\u2019s New York comeback.<\/p>\n

It was Lee\u2019s first major appearance since her Broadway show in 1983. Since then, she has spent hours in hospitals and in courts of law. The happy news is that she is miraculously resilient.<\/p>\n

Broadway was really not a suitable setting for Lee, whose musical style has always been laid-back and intimate. She\u2019s not a belter. She doesn\u2019t go for big emotional moments. Her triumphs come in moments that are quietly, provocatively sexy. The style has treated her voice very gently. It\u2019s possible that singers who had given their cords a more strenuous workout might not have survived all the ordeals Lee had with as much of their special sound intact.<\/p>\n

But Lee\u2019s voice is, for the most part, remarkably unstrained, and it still has much of its trademark velvet coziness. She\u2019s also very savvy about the songs she sings, cannily blending her own standards (those she wrote, like “Fever” or “Ma\u00f1ana,” and those she made famous, like “Why Don\u2019t You Do Right?” and “Is That All There Is?”) with other great songs from years past (an elegant version of “Always True to You in My Fashion” and a touching “I\u2019ll Be Seeing You”).<\/p>\n

In between she chats breezily.<\/p>\n

“You think I\u2019ve got millions of dollars,” she jokes, alluding to her successful lawsuit against Disney for royalties from the video sales of Lady and the Tramp. She has yet to collect, she tells us. “If they\u2019re waiting for me to die, good luck!” she says after a rousing, spunky version of “He\u2019s a Tramp.”<\/p>\n

She keeps forgetting the lyrics for Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen\u2019s “Walkin\u2019 Happy.” Her masterly accompanist\/conductor Mike Renzi whispers them and she still doesn\u2019t seem to get them right. The high spirits are so infectious it doesn\u2019t matter. As Cahn shouted to her opening night, “Even when you do bad, it\u2019s good.”<\/p>\n

Renzi\u2019s arrangements are very skillful, his musicians all very mellow. He uses more synthesizer than I generally like, but it\u2019s an effective cushion for Lee\u2019s voice.<\/p>\n

As she began her act to a tumultuous ovation, she said, “There\u2019s something special about tonight. Not only did I get back to New York, but I walked to this chair. I\u2019ve been lying prone for a year.”<\/p>\n

The whole thing is indeed special. Her severely cut snow-white wig, her puffy features and a glitzy gown make her look like an embalmed Mae West, but she still knows how to control a room and the sound is still that special sound.<\/p>\n

What Lee has done is heroic, and the most amazing part of it is that she manages to make herself not at all heroic but simply the familiar, unpretentious legend.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Howard Kissel Only in Hollywood movies, I had always supposed, do you see a frazzled maitre d\u2019 hoisting tiny tables over crowds and jamming them into the already tight spots between the tables to squeeze in patrons desperate to get into a nightclub. 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