For Bob Wetzel, life is a cabaret. At least some of the time. Finally.
I’m drawn to stories about people who choose 180 degree turns, who take a second look at a path not chosen and decide to take an off-ramp that leads to someplace that was left behind, but not forgotten. Recently I wrote about three lawyers turned artists. Bob Wetzel’s journey from button-downed management consultant (“grey suit, striped tie and polished wingtips”) to cabaret performer is another such story.
Bob saw “Mame” on Broadway when he was 12 years old and was forever smitten with musical theater. At Dartmouth he joined the Glee Club and was a self-described “Hop rat.” He majored in Economics and International Government, and then served as a management consultant for decades in the US and Europe. To be sure, during his career he kept a hand in the arts, chairing the Hopkins Center and Hood Museum board (when it was singular), and singing in the Handel Society. But that was extracurricular, far from his day job.
Now he’s a cabaret singer with 5 to 6 shows under his belt (including one written during Covid that centers around Mama Cass Elliot’s home in Laurel Canyon. He compares it to Gertrude Stein’s Parisian salon of the 1920s.) He has performed in the UV, New York, St. Louis, and soon, Chicago. How did that happen?
“In about 2010, my ex-wife – also very involved in music – discovered Interplay Jazz and Arts (interplayjazzandarts.org) and its summer intensive program for instrumental and vocal musicians. Having always harbored an interest in more popular music – specifically the American Songbook – I signed up. My life was changed. I discovered that I could, in fact, sing by myself.”
He continued to study with some of the heavy-hitters in the world of professional cabaret, and he says, “As I often describe it to friends and others: ‘some people play golf, I do cabaret: it costs about the same, and I am about a 13 handicap.’”
What are the challenges of being a solo cabaret performer? Bob explains:
. . . to make an hour’s worth of stories and songs interesting to a general audience. Probably 10-15% of my typical audience is made up of ‘insiders’ – people who are musicians themselves and who know the music. But the other 85% are there for entertainment. Structuring a show that engages, enlightens, teaches and, simply, entertains is not easy. I personally love ballads, but an hour of ballads will have everyone sleeping by the 20-minute mark.
And, a 13 handicap? You can be the judge of that. Bob will be performing “Peasant, Pirate and Poet: The Music of Jimmy Webb” on April 13 at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation’s church on Route 5 in Norwich, VT in a benefit for the Upper Valley’s New England School of the Arts. Tickets are available here. He’s been a fan of Webb’s songwriting, which includes songs known to those of us of a certain age, “Wichita Lineman” and “Up, Up and Away,” and of course, “MacArthur Park.”
Bob says he’s got—and will share—the real story of the ever-mysterious “someone left the cake out in the rain.”
*******************
P.S. Who sang or recorded MacArthur Park? Many people, including Donna Summer (disco version), the Four Tops, and . . . country singer Waylon Jennings (for which he received his first Grammy). Here’s the list. For nostalgia’s sake (remember 1968?), start with the original, sung by Richard Harris. You know you want to.
——————————————————
Thank you! You’re reading Artful, a blog about arts and culture in the Upper Valley, and I hope you’ll subscribe (still free) and then share this post with your friends and on your social media.
And in case you are wondering . . . Susan B. Apel shuttered a lifelong career as a law professor to continue an interest (since kindergarten) in writing. Her freelance business, The Next Word, includes literary and feature writing; her work has appeared in a variety of lit mags and other publications including Art New England, The Woven Tale Press, The Arts Fuse, and Persimmon Tree. She connects with her neighbors through Artful, her blog about arts and culture in the Upper Valley. She’s in love with the written word..