REVIEW
What: An Evening with Macy Gray
Where: Royal Theatre
When: Wednesday, June 27, 2018
Rating: 3.5 (out of 5)
Fans who witnessed Macy Gray perform at the Royal Theatre in 2013, during her debut here, were given a mere sampling of her gifts. The Grammy award-winning singer came back with a full serving on Wednesday, delivering a genre-splitting performance that reinforced her reputation as a musical maverick.
Gray, 50, returned to the Broughton Street theatre in funky fashion, opening her 90-minute set at the TD Victoria International Jazz Festival with Relating to a Psychopath, a hard-charging showstopper in which she refers to herself as “a crazy bitch.”
“I was thinking,” Gray said, during an early break in the action, “since we’re all here together on this beautiful Wednesday night, we may as well get to know each other.”
She asked members of the audience to introduce themselves at once, which prompted a huge response from the sold-out house. “We want to know your names, too,” Gray said.
“But only the sexy people.”
Her performance in 2013 was as the featured guest of saxophonist David Murray, a veteran bandleader from Paris who was reportedly given the job of shepherding Gray’s comeback after several years of personal and professional difficulties. It was a fine show that sizzled in spots, despite being only half-full.
Gray’s return was nothing like the previous show, but that was to be expected. Stripped, her jazz album from two years ago, is among the best-reviewed albums of her 20-year career, and established her true-blue credentials as a torch singer.
As a result, tickets to her JazzFest return sold at a faster clip than any other engagement at this year’s festival.
She didn’t play much in the way of jazz, save for a swinging version of What a Wonderful World. But she did offer everything from reggae (She Ain’t Right For You) and soul (Sweet Baby) to acid house (Beauty in the World) over the course of the night.
All the while, she was backed by a red-hot quartet of high-level players, all of whom were sporting off-white suits. Gray, for her part, changed three times, returning after each sojourn wearing a dramatically tailored floor-length dress.
Her singing was spectacular at all points, peaking during an incredibly honest rendering of Brass in Pocket by the Pretenders (which, by comparison, was only slightly better than Gray’s elastic elocution on Sugar Daddy, her slow-burning new single co-written by Meghan Trainor).
And that marching band version of I Try, her career-defining hit? Call it a radical breath of fresh air, proving that no matter how far she travels into the unknown, she’s still a singer with soul.
Not everything clicked — her cover of Radiohead’s Creep was strangely forgettable — and her wild forays lost various audience members, some of whom hit the exits early.
That’s what you get with Gray, who bends for no one at this point in her career.
“You sure are quiet for a bunch of sexy people,” she cooed playfully at one point.
“I don’t want to be the girl at the wedding reception — dance with me one time.”
Dance they did, shortly after the one-hour mark, and it was on their feet they remained for the duration. The show closed with the building cheering loudly in unison, and Gray beaming from ear to ear.
A welcome return, indeed.
