Although the boundary between the opera and musical theater worlds can be ambiguous, few opera singers have crossed over to success in musicals. One who certainly has is Brazilian-born baritone Paulo Szot, 2008 Tony Award winner in the expansive revival of South Pacific.
With one crossover under his belt, he has been afforded the opportunity to make a similar mark in the intimate realm of cabaret. As he demonstrates at the Colony Hotel’s Royal Room during the next two weeks, Szot has vocal power to spare, but even after being acclaimed in some of New York’s top cabaret venues, he still seems uncomfortable connecting directly with the audience, as the genre requires.
Give Szot credit for assembling a smart, audience-friendly hour-and-a-quarter act, nicely balanced among a tribute to songwriter Burton Lane (on the 100th anniversary of his birth), bossa nova and other rhythms from his homeland, and assorted flashy Broadway solos. But he rarely makes eye contact with the supper club’s customers, or even spends much time facing out at them.
As Szot readily concedes, he is inherently shy, so do not go expecting the usual effusive display of personality which — genuine or otherwise — is a mainstay of the cabaret genre. If instead, you are interested in hearing one of the most impassioned, expressive voices around today, Szot is your man.
He began his set well, striding through the crowd, crooning Lane and E.Y. Harburg’s Old Devil Moon from Finian’s Rainbow. And to his credit, Szot was unruffled when his microphone came apart in his hands soon after hitting the stage at Tuesday’s opening performance.
He barreled on ahead with two numbers from the Fred Astaire film classic Royal Wedding — sorry, no dancing on the ceiling — and a couple of selections from a little-known, short-lived 1979 Lane musical, Carmelina. Well worth exhuming was a swoon-worthy ballad, It’s Time For a Love Song, which, come to think of it, would be a fitting title for Szot’s entire act.
Musical director Billy Stritch injected a jazz motif into several of Szot’s selections, which smoothed some of the operetta edges from Romberg and Hammerstein’s Lover Come Back to Me. Sharing the music of his homeland, Szot offered a few bossa nova selections, in Portuguese, a softer contrast to his frequently belting attack on the rest of his program.
After performing South Pacific for hundreds of times, he can be excused for omitting Some Enchanted Evening from his song list, though Emile DeBecque’s other big number, This Nearly Was Mine, was a standout at the Royal Room. The difficulty of operatic crossover, however, was illustrated with Szot’s attempt at Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Soliloquy from Carousel. As much an acting exercise as a singing challenge, the song has some treacherous transitions, which Szot was less successful negotiating.
Still, as a songfest, there was plenty to admire in the evening, right down to his encore, Lancelot’s If Ever I Would Leave You from Lerner and Loewe’s Camelot. Hearing Szot caress the number — a staple of his cabaret work — should give someone the impetus to revive the show on Broadway.
PAULO SZOT, Colony Hotel Royal Room, 155 Hammon Ave., Palm Beach. Through Feb. 18. Prices: Dinner and show: $100-$145. Show only: $55-$100. Call: (561) 659-8100.