Reviews of Ain't We Got Fun? A Love Story About Looking for Work

The Best of Cabaret 2002: "The best way to determine whom to watch for in cabaret in 2003 is to see who did the most outstanding work in 2002.
Best Concept Shows:
1) Elaine St. George at Don't Tell Mama"
-- Barbara and Scott Siegel, theatermania.com

"It is a commonplace to lament that fine cabaret performers need day jobs. They have to make a living and enough money to pay for costs unlikely to be recouped in mounting a show. Elaine St. George has taken this reality one step further. What about needing a day job and being unable to get one? In her show at Don't Tell Mama, Ain't We Got Fun? A Love Story About Looking for Work, she successfully carries out an unlikely premise. The search for work in economically troubled times is likened to the search for a romantic partner. In both instances, one has to sell oneself and keep up one's spirit during the search. Combining a lovely soprano voice with an unassuming manner, Elaine performed Kurt Weill's Economics, a fine rendition of Rodgers and Hart's Ten Cents a Dance, and Andrew Lippa's Old-Fashioned Love Story. Some of her choices were ironically significant, such as Gershwin's Nice Work If You Can Get It and What Did She Have That I Don't Have by Burton Lane and Alan Jay Lerner. Fortunately Elaine has now found a good job, celebrated in Many a New Day from Oklahoma. This happy ending (for now, at least) kept her show from being potentially depressing even if she did remind her audience that looking for a job is in most of their cards. It also gave the show the social significance that reminds one that cabaret is not always an escapist art form." -- Barbara Leavy, CabaretScenes.com, December 2002