Kim Criswell – Cadogan Hall

Kim Criswell performed A Celebration of the Music of Cole Porter at the Cadogan Hall, London

Kim Criswell performed A Celebration of the Music of Cole Porter at the Cadogan Hall, London.

With the temperature in my train reaching 34c, I was thinking it was ‘Too Darn Hot’ to spend the evening at the Cadogan Hall for the first of three From West End to Broadway’ diva concerts, even it was to hear the glorious, bell-like voice of Kim Criswell.

But it was a decision fully vindicated first by the sublime air-conditioning in the 900-seater auditorium, and then by the wonderful 22 Porter songs with which Criswell serenaded us in the course of the next two hours.

What songs they were and how thrilled Porter, looking down from some louche heavenly hangout, would have been to have the London-based Virginian singing them. Nobody does it better. Whether it was the belters he penned for Ethel Merman, the witty, name-dropping songs he so loved writing to show how well connected he was, the lonely ballads like ‘Love For Sale’, or those paeans to his favourite cities ‘I Happen to Love New York’ and ‘I Love Paris’, the flame-haired Criswell had the perfect interpretation for all of them.

Maybe she’s not the best raconteuse in the world, but it was fascinating to hear the back-story to ‘Miss Otis Regrets’, the murderous song he wrote to win a bet from his great friend, the actor Monty Woolley. They were dining together when Porter apparently said he could write a song about any subject on earth and Woolley challenged him to write one about the next phrase he heard in the restaurant. That turned out to be a waiter saying to a neighbouring table: “Miss Otis regrets she’s unable to lunch today.”

It was also fascinating to hear, back-to-back, two similar songs from Can-Can, the first, ‘Who Said Gay Paree?’, written for the original Broadway show then thrown into a drawer in favour of the superior ‘I Love Paris’ for later versions and, of course, the 1960 film.

Earlier, Criswell had given us the lurid background to that wistful 1930 classic ‘Love For Sale’ from The New Yorkers. The song, about a streetwalking prostitute touting her wares, was sung by a white woman in the original production but after being banned on radio for being too scandalous, it was later allowed but only if a black woman sang it – even though there was no shortage of white ‘ladies of the night’ on the New York streets. Such was the quaint censorship of 80 years ago.

Mixing the familiar ‘It’s De-Lovely’, ‘Begin the Beguine’ and ‘Night and Day’ with the less familiar ‘Stereophonic Sound’ from Silk Stockings, ‘I’ve Still Got My Health’ from Panama Hattie and ‘Where Would You Get Your Coat’ from Fifty Million Frenchmen, and fautlessly supported by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchesta under the baton of Richard Balcombe, Criswell set a very high bar for Ruthie Henshall (8 August) and Maria Friedman (15 August), who follow her on to the Cadogan Hall concert platform this month.

Criswell’s performance also begged the question: Why do we not see more of her? Not since she first came over to play the lead in the 1992 revival of Annie Get Your Gun (and settle here) has she been given a top West End part. Maybe she’s simply too perfect for her own good, because she’s light years ahead of most of today’s leading ladies.

It is at least 15 years since I last caught her at the much-missed Pizza On the Park, where she brought tears to my eyes with a song about AIDS, and I am delighted to say the voice, at 57, is as thrilling and pitch-perfect as ever. It is not stretching the truth to call it one of the wonders of the musical theatre world.

Jeremy Chapman