http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/10/arts/music/molly-ringwald-sings-at-caf-carlyle.html 2014-10-10 00:20:58 Molly Ringwald Sings at Café Carlyle The actress Molly Ringwald takes a brash tone in her cabaret singing at Café Carlyle. === Who knew that the Brat Pack girl of the ’80s was weaned on the records of Bessie Smith and Fats Waller? That’s what Ms. Ringwald The Brat Pack era coincided with the ascent of Madonna, and Ms. Ringwald conveyed a less defiant mix of the same brashness and zaniness that Madonna breathed into pop. The show opened with her version of “Sooner or Later,” from the movie “Dick Tracy.” Ms. Ringwald, who has a reasonably strong voice and blunt style of syncopation, displayed a reliable sense of pitch but showed little interest in sounding demure or coy. She maintained an easy rapport with her musicians: the excellent pianist Peter Smith, the bassist Trevor Ware and the drummer Tony Jefferson. Many of the songs were refreshed by brisk tempos. “I Feel Pretty,” arranged in double time, skipped along frantically. Spitting out the lyrics to “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?,” Ms. Ringwald addressed the present economic malaise in a sarcastic tone. Her solid acting skills lent her dramatic performance of the Billie Holiday standard “Don’t Explain” a core of emotional truth. Where Holiday’s version was the muted cry of masochistic compliance by the partner of a cheating spouse, Ms. Ringwald expressed a cleareyed decisiveness, as though she had agreed to forgive his betrayal, but only this once.