Singer says she’s no cabaret act

Linda Eder is a singer sometimes too versatile for her own marketing. Las Vegas is a place that once would have been fine with that.

The singer, performing Friday through Aug. 19 at the Suncoast, made her breakthrough with the Broadway musical "Jekyll & Hyde." But that's the only legitimate theater piece she has performed.

Her most recent album was a collection of Judy Garland hits, but she doesn't consider herself a cabaret act in the Garland or Liza Minnelli vein. "Cabaret to me is where a performer will sing and weave a theatrical line through their songs, a lot of storytelling, that kind of stuff," she says. "That's not really me. I'm basically just a concert performer."

Las Vegans have so far seen Eder sing in what you would call upgraded concert surroundings: Artemus Ham Hall at UNLV or the floating stage at Lake Las Vegas last year. Having her move into a locals-oriented casino might seem a bit unremarkable at first.

But think about it a minute. How many solo singers are playing Las Vegas these days, apart from one-night concert tours? The big names on showroom marquees these days are mostly comedians. The list of singers, particularly adult-oriented ones, is short: two resident working moms, Celine Dion and Toni Braxton, and exclusive multiweek visits by Elton John and Barry Manilow.

Beyond that, you see occasional experiments such as this one with Eder. In the big arenas, there's no cap on repeat visits by the likes of Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, but that's only good when those big tours are on the road. The smaller rooms always can use a deeper bullpen of acts that can be booked more flexibly.

Many possibilities lie beyond the usual classic rock suspects, but Las Vegas mirrors larger challenges in the music business. How do you create awareness for singers who don't fall into the narrow niches of corporate radio? How do parents still more accustomed to record stores than MySpace discover artists beyond their old favorites?

Eder hopes to find out in February, when she releases what she describes as "a pop album with country inflections in the arrangements; sort of what I used to do before I ever got into the theater. It's sort of the stripped-down me. No role-playing, no taking on a character.

"I feel like I'm making the record I would have made 20 years ago if I hadn't gone into the theater route and the standards so much," she adds. "I'm living my 20s in my 40s basically. But I'm not saying I'm trying to pretend I'm some 20-year-old doing pop music. I'm a 46-year-old woman, but this is what it sounds like. This is very much me."

Not so long ago, Las Vegas was the place she could find a like-minded audience. Perhaps in the future, it will be again.

Mike Weatherford's entertainment column appears Thursdays and Sundays. Contact him at 383-0288 or e-mail him at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com.