Michael Feinstein - An American in London

Published Wednesday 9 January 2008 at 11:55 by Mark Shenton

Michael Feinstein’s mission is simultaneously simple yet also immensely complex and important - to keep great songs alive.

He does so not just in his own expertly crafted renditions of standards that he has become a standard-bearer for, in every sense, but also in a lynchpin role he has taken on as both inveterate archivist collector of the material, as well as provider of the outlets for it to survive and thrive.

The idea behind Feinstein’s at the Regency, the New York club that bears his name, has now been newly exported to London with the launch of Feinstein’s at the Shaw, and inaugurating the opening season himself that will go on to include Broadway’s Chita Rivera, German Ute Lemper, and UK songbirds Elkie Brooks, Barb Jungr and Barbara Dickson, he effortlessly cut to both the art and heart of great cabaret.

In this classy evening of classic song, he becomes a conduit to a past of musical riches that he propels very much into the present.

That’s partly thanks to the strong personal connections he can draw off, since he long ago also made it his mission to befriend many of the leading composing lights of their day, from Ira Gershwin to Jerry Herman. But this particular kind of name-dropping comes from a place of immense pride for them and love of their work, and it pays off in the utter integrity he brings to illustrating their work.

A Gershwin medley, constructed out of suggestions from the audience, draws on that huge personal iPod player in his head - even an off-the-wall request of “I’m a Poached Egg”, which he labelled a “rightfully obscure” number out of the repertoire of some 1,200 songs that the Gershwin brothers wrote, is given an a cappella verse.

But if I would have personally enjoyed more of this sort of thing, the audience was understandably appreciative of more classic choices, from Embraceable You and But Not for me to a generous helping of Porter that included Can-Can (in all its verses) and Begin the Beguine.