STAGE REVIEW : ‘Something’: No Soul, No Swing

For definitive proof--as if any were needed--that we are no longer in the era of the literate and melodically tuneful love song, “Something to Shout About,” a cabaret survey of the music and lyrics of Eric Vetro and Steven Shore, is on display at the Cinegrill.

“Creative consultant” (presumably meaning director) Kristoffer Siegel Tabori tries to inject some dramatic plasma into the fairly lifeless Vetro-Shore opus, but the only singer in his trio with any theatrical drive is Mara Getz. Getz’ voice makes the songs at least listenable; Reece Holland makes them soft and bland, while Samantha Samuels’ low registers grind them down.

Samuels counteracts this in a section where she plays a heartfelt, shy woman in a single’s bar (she finds her shy match in Holland). The programming, though, becomes weighted down with mid-tempo freight, ballads just this side of Barry Manilow and cliched lyrics, as in “Mornings Aren’t the Same” (“Didn’t I say you put the blue into the sky?”). With Vetro on back-up piano, there is no soul, no swing in these tunes about love running up against fleeting time. And there’s not much to shout about.

“Something to Shout About,” Cinegrill, Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, 7000 Hollywood Blvd., Mondays, 8 p.m. Ends May 27. $15; (213) 466-7000. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes.