British-born stage actress Melanie Marshall’s Bermuda Festival for the Performing Arts debut at the Earl Cameron Theatre on Tuesday was by turns enjoyable and amusing, warm and intimate.

Interspersing amusing anecdotes from her “hmmm-many” years as a performer between songs, Ms Marshall started with two songs from ‘Show Boat’ — ‘Loving That Man of Mine’ and ‘Along Came Bill’.

She then accompanied herself in ‘Trouble Sleep’ from current Broadway hit ‘Fela!’ based on music and lyrics by the late Nigerian singer Fela Kuli.

Ms Marshall provided some background on the late Nigerian pianist and composer who emulated his activist mother, a woman who always admonished him that his music must also bring attention to the plight of the people.

The message of ‘Trouble Sleep’ is basically that behaviour that oppresses the common man will eventually result in an uprising — “when the cat sleeps the rat may bite him but one day the cat will wake up!”

Ms Marshall’s Gershwin selections came from the musicals ‘Porgy and Bess’ and ‘Girl Crazy’.

She shared that the lullaby ‘Summertime’ was her all-time favourite song, one she always strived to include in the line-up whenever she is in concert.

It was sung with feeling as was ‘Embraceable You’.

She also provided the back story to the song ‘I Loves You, Porgy’ and presented it in a way that helped one to see the anguish of a woman who has relinquished control over her body and emotions to the men in her life.

The pianist, Jason Thompson set a bruising pace for ‘I Got Rhythm’ and sadly, his staccato style occasionally overpowered Ms Marshall’s voice.

However he redeemed himself with his solo rendition of ‘Autumn Leaves’, beginning sweetly and then segueing into a jazz version that at times was reminiscent of stride-master, Fats Waller, at others, double-handed Art Tatum.

Jason played three solo tunes during the evening, each one demonstrating his prowess, and we were all amazed at the end when Ms Marshall shared that he had strained a tendon in his left hand and had been advised by his doctor not to play … a testament to the adage “the show must go on!”

The first half was closed with three songs by Clement Ishmael, a mentor, composer, and international musical director for Disney’s ‘The Lion King’.

She performed his ‘Agnus Dei’, ‘My Life Has Turned to Blue’, and ‘Like a Beacon’, the lament of a West Indian woman remembering the tastes of home in England’s bitter cold.

The second half began with an anecdote about a recent meeting with Sir Harry Belafonte, a childhood idol.

Ms Marshall has the gift of faultless timing in her story telling. There was laughter as she playfully explained what a ‘record player’ was, while recounting her father’s Sunday ritual of playing either gospel, Mendelsohn, or Harry Belafonte records when she was a child and the thrill it was to meet the legend, now in his 80s.

This was a segue into another anecdote about Dr John Rutter’s invitation to her to perform his work at Carnegie Hall.

In 1991, Ms Marshall made her debut there, performing Dr Rutter’s ‘Distant Land’. The programme informs us that in June 2001 she returned to Carnegie Hall to give the US premiere of ‘Feel the Spirit’ — a song cycle of seven Negro Spirituals specially arranged for her (with chorus and orchestra) by Dr Rutter.

She sang four selections from that opus, ‘Deep River’ a personal favourite, ‘I Gotta Robe’, ‘Steal Away’ and ‘Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho’ the last again with the tempo set a bit faster than appeared comfortable.

Jason Thompson again redeemed himself with his solo ‘Amazing Grace’, a real treat, beginning slow and reverential and then rocking the house with rousing jazz variations, followed by another anecdote from Ms Marshall, this time about her audition with Sir David Wilcox for the Bach Choir, where she had to accompany herself singing Purcell’s ‘Music for a While’, which piece she then faultlessly gifted us with. This selection truly underscored her brilliance as both singer and pianist.

The actress/singer made us all laugh with her stories of being the only black face in the YouTube film clip of the Bach Choir performing at the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana, and of her early days in the black opera ‘Carmen Jones’ when she overheard one man instructing another to “kill all the blacks and get rid of all the workers”.

She was too much of a novice to the stage at the time to understand that they were talking about the lighting.

The programme ended with a soulful ‘Ave Maria’ but both Ms Marshall and Mr Thompson were encouraged to perform encores.

The pianist again showed his range of jazz keyboard styles in his solo ‘In Other Words’ and then set a rousing pace for Ms Marshall to finish with ‘Fascinating Rhythm’. It was a fitting end to a fascinating evening.