According to Dr. Google (we like Dr. Google on occasion), ‘…active music-making positively affects neurotransmitters, such as dopamine and serotonin, that influence mood.’

In other words, when done correctly, it makes you feel good.

‘Cougar–The Cabaret’, presented by Ripple Effect Artists, and enjoying a short run at the Triad on the Upper West Side, has, without hyperbole, one of the greatest musical scores heard in recent memory, and left this humble scribe longing for more of it. Again, this is not hyperbole; the music composed for this hour-long show ranks with the best that Sondheim, Gershwin, Styne, Ellington, Rodgers & Hammerstein or Lerner & Loewe ever offered. It is jazzy, luscious, and eminently hummable. It is soothing. It is memorable. It is passionate. It is clever–with matching lyrics by Donna Moore and Meryl Leppard (who also wrote some of the music, with Mark Barkan, Arnie Gross, and Seth Lefferts) and keeps you guessing, with various key modulations and time-signature variations. It is definitely not something we have heard before, and it is definitely not AI…and least, not yet. One could only hope that, 50 years from now, there will be small pockets of life that are immune to the touch and reach of this Orwellian nightmare, and that will hopefully include music.

The plot of ‘Cougar’ has three middle-aged women (‘cougars’) searching for love and understanding, in various forms, by nurturing relationships with men that are younger. The dialogue is a bit deli-thin sliced, and the characters on occasion traffic is tried and true cliches…but in this case, it hardly matters, if at all. It doesn’t. This is not a play, and it is not a musical (although what was presented was derived from the presumably larger-in-scope musical); it is what it advertises it is–a ‘cabaret’, and the production surpassed expectations with flying colors.

Smartly and sharply directed by Lynne Taylor Corbett, the cast of characters are performed by three outstandingly-talented actress/singers: the compelling Lily (wonderfully portrayed by Mary Mossberg), the snarky Mary-Marie (an intriguing and moxy hybrid of Carol Burnett and Flo the waitress from the TV show ‘Alice’, depicted by Babs Winn), and finally, the immensely talented and captivating, Tony-Award nominated Brenda Braxton, who absolutely sparkled in her interpretation of the Professor Clarity Jackson by every definition of the word on the Triad’s intimate stage.

In ‘Twelfth Night’, Shakespeare famously begins his play with this beaut: ‘If music be the food of love, play on.’ Without question, we want the music from ‘Cougar’ to play on…and on…and on…all the way to the Great White Way, where it belongs