Bottom line: Clever and caustic yet also sweet and endearing, this teenage wonder is already a songwriter and performer well beyond her years.
Largo, Hollywood Tuesday, March 30
Oh Nellie! Only 19 (she turns 20 on April 13), London-born New Yorker Nellie McKay outshines many of her young singer-songwriter contemporaries, and even those slightly older, as a remarkable talent who's already found a truly distinctive voice.
McKay's debut on Columbia, "Get Away From Me," is both delightful and impressive, beyond the fact that a major label was willing to let a new artist make her bow with a two-disc set. Leaving some of the more extensive (though not overdone) production of her album in the studio, her solo performance on upright piano at the intimate Largo club made her all the more appealing.
McKay's a smartass in most of her lyrics, which are loaded with pop culture, art, literature and film references spanning the decades, but you just love her for all of it. Then in between numbers, she's self-effacing with some of the funniest deadpan patter and shy fumbling this side of Lyle Lovett. Musically, she's managed to skip (or avoid) years of cloying teen pop and terse rap-rock, using popular song of the 1930s and '40s as her touchstones, while managing to inject elements of rap as scat. Although some reviews have compared her to Doris Day, a female Danny Kaye is actually a more apt reference point as she beams with a playful, sassy intelligence that's tempered by genuine pathos and a sense of humanity.
Nimble-fingered on piano, she shifts from jazzy boogie-woogie and saloon flourishes to touches of cabaret and classical, while her lyrical themes are utterly contemporary. She even changes words in concert, taking aim this night at George W. Bush, Beyonce and Justin Timberlake, among other targets.
Her set included the playful "Clonie," an ode to having a clone as your best friend; she savaged the male of the species in "It's a Pose"; and she seemingly dripped cynicism yet remained ultimately hopeful for "Change the World" and "Inner Peace." One bouncy tune was in Japanese, and she led the packed club in a Mandarin (!) round-robin sing-along during another number.
McKay's torchy material can be both seductive, with her honey-coated voice, and subversive -- as in "I Wanna Get Married," which slams traditional roles -- but at the same time is filled with longing and need. She's a potential serial killer/stalker in love for "Won't U Please B Nice," while inviting ballads like "Suitcase Song" take her into Norah Jones territory with a sighing, lilting romantic mood.
Cute, brainy and personable, with an earthy sexiness that surfaces naturally and unforced, McKay is definitely a refreshing antidote to so much of the poisonous and jaded music out there these days.
Puh-leeze! This is about righteousness, not reality.
In the end, what's best about "The Winning Season" is its striking period look and agreeably languid pacing. Delphine White's costume design results in some great early 20th century threads and terrific re-creations of the 1909 World Series uniforms. And the direction from John Kent Harrison is exquisite. Technical credits are all plenty exceptional.
THE WINNING SEASON TNT Rosemont Prods. in association with MAGNA Global Entertainment and Viacom Prods. Credits: Executive producers: David A. Rosemont, Robert Riesenberg, Tracy Dorsey Producer: Lesley Oswald Director: John Kent Harrison Teleplay: Steve Bloom Based on the novel "Honus & Me" by: Dan Gutman Director of photography: Andre Pienaar Production designer: Jeffrey Ginn Visual effects supervisor: Craig Weiss Costume designer: Delphine White Editor: Michael Ornstein Music: Lawrence Shragge Casting: Lisa Freiberger Cast: Honus Wagner: Matthew Modine Mandy Henton: Kristin Davis Joe Soshack: Shawn Hatosy Joe Soshack (as a boy): Mark Rendell Ty Cobb: William Lee Scott Mrs. Young: Jackie Burroughs Mel Bernstein: Sean McCann Bill Soshack: Simon Reynolds Terry Soshack: Carin Moffat Bernice Henton: Rosemary Dunsmore Wendell Henton: Bruce Gray Renny Soshack: Samantha Weinstein
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