Review: Exciting moments outweighed glitches in Ann-Margret's Mann concert
By NANCY STETSON,
nrstetson@naplesnews.com
January 27, 2004
Before Madonna, and even before Cher, there was a woman so sexy she was known only by her hyphenated first name: Ann-Margret.
She started out as the idealized girl-next-door, eventually becoming a kitten with a whip.
Sunday night at the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall, Ann-Margret proved that she still has the goods.
Or, as she purred from the stage: "It's getting a little harder to crack that whip ... but oh, I still manage."
Does she ever.
She ran through 90 minutes of song and dance, wiggling her hips, rolling her shoulders, doing shimmies, shakes and kicks. She'd pause in middle of a song and give the audience a come-hither look.
Ann-Margret is an interesting mixture of sultry seductress and innocent girl-next-door.
At the end of the night, she received a standing ovation from the less-than-packed hall.
But the evening didn't start on an encouraging note. The show began 20 minutes late, and initially, the sound was poor.
Ann-Margret opened the show with "The Telephone Hour" from her hit movie, "Bye Bye Birdie." Many of the rewritten lyrics were drowned out by the seven-piece band. She also paused mid-song a couple of times, pretending to take a cell phone call from her husband. It was more corny than funny. (And Faith Prince had a similar schtick in her one-woman show.)
She followed it up with "Got a Lot of Livin' to Do," also from the movie.
While her voice is still in good shape, it was all too often overpowered by the band. She's so soft-spoken, and sometimes sings in a baby-girl whisper, that I'm sure people in the back of the hall and in the balcony strained to hear.
She interspersed her song-and-dance numbers with stories about her life. She talked about coming to America from Sweden when she was 6 years old and being taken to Radio City Music Hall in New York City the first night she was here. She talked about how the late George Burns gave her her first break and how he quipped, "Annie, people don't only want to hear your voice, they want to see were it's coming from."
During her many costume changes ("Excuse me while I change into something expensive," she told us) she showed movie and TV clips on a large screen: scenes from "Bye Bye Birdie," "Viva Las Vegas," "Grumpy Old Men," "Carnal Knowledge," "Tommy" and "Any Given Sunday," scenes with Elvis, John Wayne, Bob Hope and George Burns, and singing and dancing with Tina Turner.
The timing of the show seemed a little off, partially because of the many costume changes and partially because she'd pause between numbers to talk, but there were so many exciting moments that it didn't matter.
She performed Shania Twain's "Feel Like a Woman" while draped on a motorcycle, three men dancing around her.
Noting that she'd performed on that very stage two seasons ago in "Best Little *****house In Texas," she sang "Twenty-Four Hours of Lovin'" from the musical. It was not a song she'd performed during the run.
She seemed looser and more flexible Sunday night than when she'd last played in town. Perhaps because it was her show and she had more freedom — she could do whatever she wanted.
Ann-Margret mixed old songs with new. She sang a song in Swedish, her native language, then another in Italian.
Her torch songs were wonderful and had a definite effect on the audience. Women in the two rows in front of me put their heads on their husbands' shoulders as if on cue.
But it was a couple of songs you might not have expected her to perform that were highlights of the evening. Dressed in a purple strapless dress with a low back and a slit up to the top of her thigh, Ann-Margret sang "Pinball Wizard" while three dancers swirled around her. And after another costume change, this time returning in what looked like a short flapper dress made of gold and black streamers, she belted out "Knock On Wood."
Towards the end of the show, she stood at the front of the stage and worked her way across, shaking hands with everyone sitting in the front row.
She's in her early 60s, but Ann-Margret's still got the stuff. She knows how to tease and please an audience and has a good time while doing so. Performers half or a third her age don't possess her sensuality, often mistaking crudeness for sexiness. Ann-Margret doesn't have to be explicit or show off her midriff
It wasn't Las Vegas, but it was a Vegas-like show.
And Ann-Margret is still, undeniably, a legend.
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Who says famous people do not sing Shania's songs. Ann-Margret is a movie star icon who had a pretty good Vegas act going in her hayday. - She's still cool!
I like Ann-Margret! I liked her in "Grumpy Old Men"!
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