Though singer Jane Olivor hasn`t performed publicly for nine years, she still can play an audience like Perlman plays a violin.
Her comeback tour, which brought her to the Park West on Tuesday night, established that Olivor hasn`t lost the knack for eliciting precisely the emotional response she wants.
A ”spontaneous” stroll through the crowd, a dozen roses offered to an awestruck listener, a hand casually brushed across a fan`s shirt, a poignant pause between numbers-Olivor has the complete emotional arsenal at her command.
Her fans, who seem genuinely delighted to have her back, cheer for each of these gestures, and then some. Even Olivor`s most obvious illusion-in which she feigns a long series of encores by making the formal portion of her program brief-achieves the result she desires. In no time at all, Olivor has the crowd screaming for more.
As her enthusiastic audience and three-day engagement suggest, however, there are many listeners who enjoy the coy game she plays, and they`re obviously in heaven when it is taking place. For that alone, Olivor deserves credit-she has found her audience, and despite her long absence, her fans have remained loyal.
For at least one unmoved listener, however, Olivor`s show was all about the appearance of emotional give-and-take, but not the real thing.
Part of the problem is that Olivor has but three interpretations that define virtually everything she sings: Her best is a Jacques Brel
impersonation, in which seemingly impassioned, hurried phrases tumble one upon the next. Her weakest is a pseudo-country warble, suggesting what Crystal Gayle might sound like with a Brooklyn accent. Her favorite is a Barbra Streisand rehash that comes dangerously close to parody.
It doesn`t take more than a few moments to determine which of these Olivor has chosen for any particular number, which makes nearly every piece predictable at best, tedious at worst. When Olivor then begins blowing kisses or stretching out her arms as if some grand musical climax has been reached, the effort feels hollow.
The other problem is the very material Olivor chooses to sing. Obviously, she believes hyper-romantic songs such as ”Stay the Night” and ”One More Ride on the Merry-Go-Round” suit her act. In fact, the combination of this material and Olivor`s perpetually overwrought manner amount to sentimental overkill.
It`s too bad because Olivor has a fine voice that has only become deeper and richer with time. Though her constant vocal quiver doesn`t help matters, there`s no doubt she has an instrument capable of yielding some alluring sounds.
But Olivor seems more interested in hitting the same, sweet note over and over.
So long as she can go through the motions of communicating, without truly attempting it, she seems content.
