Setrakian's 'Romance' is a must-see. Even with her heart broken, her mouth stuffed with potato chips and Cap'n Crunch and bananas and milk, and her lips wrapped around a straw in a bottle of brandy, Mary Setrakian's voice can bring tears to your eyes.
If only you weren't laughing so hard. The show is Setrakian's one -woman exploration of love in the '90s, "A New York Romance," which opened Thursday in CPCC's Pease Auditorium. It costs $15.
I don't care if it's your last $15. If you don't spend it on this, you'll have passed up the entertainment bargain of the year. And after it's played everywhere else, you won't be able to say you saw it here first.
Setrakian lives in New York, but she's practically Charlotte's now. The perky yet sultry mezzo-soprano has appeared here in two touring shows and three local musical productions. This is the second time she's performed her own one-woman show in town.
Much has changed since 1994. The show's 90 minutes long now instead of an hour, full of more wackiness and aching and song.
The narrative - about a New York woman jilted by a shy but deceitful nogoodnik - hangs together far better.
And now her show is being backed by experienced producers who want to take it on tour.
But at heart - and does this show ever have heart - it is the same: Setrakian's singing everything from opera to disco with wit, gusto and tears.
And she sings it while doing her exercises, dressing, showering, putting on makeup, climbing on and off the bathroom scale and reading her cache of self-help books - all with no appreciable change in intonation or volume.
If you've ever been in love, you'll know exactly where "A New York Romance"' is coming from. If you've never been in love, get ready to.