{"id":431367,"date":"2025-12-07T16:53:28","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T16:53:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/431367\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T16:53:28","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T16:53:28","slug":"corinna-sowers-adlers-all-that-matters-a-master-class-in-cabaret-at-dont-tell-mama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/431367\/","title":{"rendered":"Corinna Sowers Adler’s ALL THAT MATTERS A Master Class in Cabaret at Don’t Tell Mama"},"content":{"rendered":"

\ud83c\udfad NEW! Cabaret Theatre Newsletter<\/p>\n

\n Get all the top news & discounts for Cabaret & beyond.\n <\/p>\n

What do you hope to see when you go to a cabaret show?\u00a0 I go in hoping to see great storytelling, I go in hoping to see human connection, I go in hoping to see authenticity.\u00a0 I also go in hoping to hear great music and great singing, if it\u2019s a music and singing show, but it isn\u2019t essential.\u00a0 Not every artist performing cabaret is a great singer, but if they are great storytellers, they can get away with anything.\u00a0 The most important thing, though (to me), is the storytelling and the authenticity.\u00a0 If that\u2019s the foundation, wonderful things are possible.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfad NEW! Cabaret Theatre Newsletter<\/p>\n

\n Get all the top news & discounts for Cabaret & beyond.\n <\/p>\n

\"Review:Yesterday, I got to see an encore of ALL THAT MATTERS, the show that Corinna Sowers<\/a> Adler has been playing this year.\u00a0 A chat between Corinna and her Musical Director, Shane Turner, would indicate this was their fifth time doing the show (four times in town, one time out), and I consider myself lucky they did this one pm show on December 6th, because scheduling conflicts kept me from the previous performances, and I should feel very sad indeed, had I never seen this musical cabaret.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because ALL THAT MATTERS is that rare thing: an example of perfect cabaret.\u00a0 Does Sowers Adler sing?\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 Does she sing well?\u00a0 Heck, yes. \u00a0 Does Turner play the piano and arrange her music well?\u00a0 Oh, my heck, yes.\u00a0 But that happens in a lot of cabaret plays (if you\u2019re lucky).\u00a0 What makes ALL THAT MATTERS perfect cabaret is great storytelling and honest-to-goodness authenticity.\u00a0 The production checks every single box.\u00a0 Every.\u00a0 Single.\u00a0 Box.\u00a0 Perfection.<\/p>\n

\"Review:<\/p>\n

With her new show, Corinna Sowers<\/a> Adler has taken a momentous event in her life (her forty-seventh birthday) and built an entire show around something that happened to her when she turned 47: she ran out of\u2026 ducks\u2026 to give.\u00a0 (Sowers Adler is her very own autocorrect: ducks to give.)\u00a0 And with an impeccably scripted book that has been meticulously matched to pre-existing musical material, CSA presents a seventy-five-minute play (the story arc is incredibly present) about \u201cThe Changepurse of Ducks\u201d that examines what ducks are worth keeping and caring about, and what ducks deserve to be thrown out.\u00a0 It is, in a word, brilliant.\u00a0 It is, in two words, brilliantly executed.\u00a0 There is crowd work and lots of it (one of the benefits of the cabaret art form).\u00a0 There are props (and who doesn\u2019t love some good prop comedy?).\u00a0 There is Adam DeCarlo\u2019s emotionally accessible lighting design, and there is Shane Turner at the piano providing exquisite (underline it) musical direction.\u00a0 There is even a beautiful moment of human and artistic connection with the presence of sweet-voiced DC Anderson, in the form of a duet of Sarah Bareilles<\/a>‘ “You Matter To Me” (just lovely).\u00a0 And from first entrance to final bow, Corinna Sowers<\/a> Adler presents a master class in the art of cabaret, of storytelling, and of professionalism.\u00a0 Please, let this not be an encore, only, please let ALL THAT MATTERS have more life.<\/p>\n

\"Review:Navigating the stories in her show around the ducks that she is either discarding or safeguarding, Corinna confronts not giving a duck (marvelously) with the Judy Garland<\/a> classic \u201cI Don\u2019t Care\u201d (complete with Garland\u2019s arm-ography from In The Good Old Summertime) before reminiscing about being the \u201cLast One Picked\u201d (raise your hand if even the title alone sends shivers down your spine), but it isn\u2019t only musical theater and movie musicals providing material for CSA\u2019s storytelling, nay, nay.\u00a0 The soprano is well served by her interest in all genres of music, employing works made by Brandi Carlile, Amy Grant<\/a>, and Sara Bareilles<\/a>, and quite adept at the more popular music she is, indeed, Sowers Adler actually nails one of the ducks she throws out early in the show, \u201cEverybody expects me to sing only the soprano repertoire!\u201d (tosses duck). \u00a0 Corinna comes out of the rafters a few times during the program, and rather successfully, showing that there are rooms in her vocal house that may not be visited regularly, but they are there, and they are lovely, and they are worthy of our attention. \u00a0 Particularly moving moments included the Carlile composition \u201cMost of All,\u201d as applied to a monologue about watching one\u2019s parents get older, and the show\u2019s title song, \u201cAll That Matters,\u201d representing her work as a teacher, as a \u2018Mary Poppins\u2019 who guides other people\u2019s children in life.\u00a0 All of the monology in her musical cabaret play acts as steadfast bridgework leading from one magical musical moment to the next – and they aren\u2019t all heartfelt, like the two aforementioned songs, because this singing actress (who is present in every word, every phrase, and every stanza) is also a comedienne.\u00a0 Observe the comical commitment Sowers Adler focuses on a (specatacularly arranged) \u201cIf I Only Had A Brain\u201d that comments on being forgetful in your forties, or the combination of facial expression and line delivery utilized in Susan Werner<\/a>\u2019s cabaret staple \u201cWhat Did You Do To Your Face?\u201d (Corinna\u2019s rendition is one of the best on the market).\u00a0 They say that those who can\u2019t teach, but CSA is proof positive that those who teach, can.\u00a0 She may be molding young minds and young artists, but here she is, a singing actress who does one show a year (one show, if we\u2019re lucky) and always hits it out of the park.\u00a0 And, to that end, it is worth noting that Corinna Sowers<\/a> Adler is her own director. \u00a0 Normally, this is something about which this writer would speak out against – a cabaret performer directing their own show is (in my opinion) a bit like a lawyer who has their self as a client.\u00a0 Don\u2019t do it, just don\u2019t.\u00a0 But this teacher and creator knows what she\u2019s doing and this is one of those rare occasions when CSA, the director of ALL THAT MATTERS, gets the same praise as CSA, the storyteller of ALL THAT MATTERS.\u00a0 Double the accolades.<\/p>\n

\"Review:<\/p>\n

And while dispensing the praise, it should be mentioned that Shane Turner is a musical miracle, one of the best MD\u2019s this writer and cabaret aficionado has seen in a while, and this is my first time seeing him.\u00a0 His arrangements of \u201cIf I Only Had a Brain\u201d (a stunning jazz treatment), and \u201cHere\u2019s To Life\u201d (an uptempo affirmation of joy) are among his triumphs here, but the mashup of two different \u201cTrue Loves\u201d (one by Cole Porter<\/a>, the other by Alecia Moore, Greg Kurstin<\/a>, and Lily Rose Cooper<\/a>, orchestrated in honor of her husband Nicholas Adler<\/a>) is next level, and all of the Turner treatments are here, supplying Sowers Adler with fodder for success.\u00a0 That is before one even attempts to discuss his ability to set the keys ablaze with his virtuosity of fingers, which is, frankly, gasp-worthy.\u00a0 Corinna is, indeed, fortunate in her association with the gentleman, which she knows, having declared, mid-performance, that he is one of the ducks she intends to keep in her changepurse. \u00a0 And while she keeps him in her changepurse, let us all keep her in ours because, once again, Corinna Sowers<\/a> Adler has proven that she is an artist to admire, a storyteller to enjoy, and a light in the community to be nurtured and absorbed. \u00a0 She may be teaching those kids over at NiCori Studios over in New Jersey, but through her artistry and humanity, she is teaching audiences here in New York how to embrace life, and other artists how to make the most out of their moments on the cabaret stage.\u00a0 When a storyteller teaches, when an artist illuminates, when another person inspires, it’s a good day.\u00a0 ALL THAT MATTERS is all that\u2019s good.<\/p>\n

Find great shows to see at Don’t Tell Mama HERE.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Visit the Corinna Sowers<\/a> Adler website HERE<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Photos by Stephen Mosher<\/strong><\/p>\n

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