MILLA IN "TAKING A CHANCE ON LOVE" FORMERLY CALLED "SO MANY NIGHTS, SO MANY MEN"

Royalty

"Milla seems on her way to joining the ranks of cabaret royalty. Her latest show, So Many Nights, So Many Men played a special one-nighter on Valentine's Day and it was indeed a sweetheart of a performance. She can glide from an elegant soprano to chocolatey deep tones in the time it takes to wink at the ringside customers; something she does frequently and irresistibly." -- Michael Dale BROADWAYWORLD.COM Feb. 17, 2006

 

Those planning cabaret acts should be given a conference with Milla Ilieva. Too many singers choose material that's been done to death, but for her new show, the fetching Ilieva found some songs that your rarely or never get to hear. Thanks to Ilieva for reminding us of that!" -- Peter Filichia
THEATERMANIA.COM

 

La Sexy

The sexy Milla Ilieva delights us with impassioned and sometimes erotic songs. She tells us this is her intention in the title "So Many Nights, So Many Men." She starts with "What a Night This is Going to Be." A promise kept for the entire evening. She is inviting and seductive in "When Does the Ravishing Begin?" She makes us wonder with excitement -- do women actually think like this? She continues to convince us with songs that have titles that are very clear and tempting: "I Found Him," "I Could Have Danced All Night," "Do It Again," "Sara Lee," "The Only Game in Town," and "Taking a Chance on Love." The selections are ideal. She is accompanied on the piano by the noted, very prepared Paul Trueblood, a maestro loved by numerous singers. Milla is a singer who makes you applaud and admire her. Bravissima! Applaudissima! -- Mario Fratti AMERICA OGGI

 

Milla Shows 'Em

In her saucy new show, So Many Nights, So Many Men, cabaret artist Milla Ilieva enriches and expands the parameters of her considerable skills as a cabaret artist. Commanding the stage with both presence and poise, she builds upon her southern roots to establish a playful persona that is part southern belle, part New York sophisticate, and all woman. In her opening number she promises, "What A Night This Is Going To Be," and she is true to her word.

A tongue-in-cheek performance by a woman with an appetite for the sensual and the sexual, her colorful tour of the many and varied dimensions of love ranges from her sly take on the dicey "When Does the Ravishing Begin?" to her consummate and consummated rendition of "Do it Again." A soprano whose most beguiling notes seem to come from the middle to the lower part of her register, and an actress with expressive, big flirty eyes, Ilieva has the tools to make a powerful impression and the skill to put those tools to work. She covers "Sara Lee" with comic icing, and turns "Everybody's Girl" into the show-stopping centerpiece of her show.

This is a particularly well-crafted act with careful attention paid to song selection. Her show is anchored by strong, emotionally charged standards like "Time Heals Everything" and given additional verve by virtue of its cleverly chosen obscure gems such as "Tess's Torch Song." She sets up each number with patter that is delivered with a refreshing economy, and then she puts them over with an impressive veneer of professionalism. She is aided and abetted in her pursuit of excellence by her director, Broadway veteran Margery Beddow, and her much-admired musical director Paul Trueblood who is among the elite few who know how to support a singer without overplaying.

Despite the sexual innuendos and bad girl bantering, at the heart of Ilieva's show is a warm-hearted optimism. If she tips her hand by singing a sincere version of "A Cockeyed Optimist," she deepens the sentiment with her buoyant rendition of "Taking a Chance on Love." Barbara and Scott Siegel ~ The Two of Clubs ~ TalkinBroadway.com 11/04/05

 

Full-Bodied Ilieva at the Encore

If you can imagine one of the full-bodied ladies on a vast Peter Paul Rubens canvas doing a cabaret act, then you have some idea of how full-bodied Milla Ilieva of the full-bodied voice appears during So Many Nights So Many Men at the Encore . The rosy-cheeked (and I mean all four cheeks) Rubens women are innocent and voluptuous at the same time, bursting with good health and good cheer. And that’s Ilieva all over.

Directed with animation by Margery Beddow and with Paul Trueblood playing tasteful notes and chords at the piano, Ilieva has great fun–carefully prepared–chatting about her up-and-down love life and then backing up her confessions with appropriate songs. Unwilling to play the coquette, she suggests a rather active amorous past (and present) in a medley of “Do What You Do” (John Jennings) and “Do It Again” (the Gershwin sibs). To substantiate her declarations further, she’s delved pulled up “When Does the Ravishing Begin” from the obscure “Lock Up Your Daughters.” Her thoughtfully-arranged version of Jerry Herman’s ‘Time Heals Everything” may be the best rendition yet she gets giggles (and emits a few) on the Fred Ebb-John Kander “Sara Lee.”

Incidentally, this is the same Milla Ilieva who has campaigned for MAC (The Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs) to do right by its membership. For her pains, she’s endured some offensive retaliation by small-minded members of the often petty local cabaret community. The reason I bring this up is that in the sole digression from her making-whoopee theme, she sings “The Only Game in Town” (Kander-Ebb), which was cut from “The Act” and includes a phrase about dealing with lies. She introduces the song by saying that what happens to a woman isn’t what matters. It’s how the woman handles it that counts. Let’s just say that while cabaret is an increasingly shrinking game, Milla Ilieva is winning it hands down against nose-thumbers who haven’t a modicum of the talent or gumption she displays here with effortless effort. David Finkle ~ November 01, 2005 ~ Backstage

 

Weighty and Not-So Divas
Milla’s melodies; good noir and good luck

More lovely vocals were heard from Milla Ilieva at The Encore on November 4. Her show, entitled, “So Many Nights, So Many Men,” may have been nothing new in terms of theme—amazing how cabaret-enduring is that single woman complaining about relationships but finding solace in food—but her singing was the real, wonderfully trained deal, helped by Paul Trueblood’s elegant piano and Margery Beddow’s savvy direction. Ilieva was especially lovely on Gershwin’s “Do It Again” and Rodgers & Hart’s “Where’s That Rainbow?” to which she gave a poignant delicacy akin to Helen Morgan. I suggested that she do more of this, even an entire show devoted to the torchiest songstress. Ilieva has the right, dark, voluptuous look and seemed to lap up the idea like Devon cream. David Noh ~ GAY CITY NEWS

 

MILLA IN "BROADWAY UNPLUGGED"

"From the 1932 revue 'The Bandwagon,' which featured Fred Astaire and his sister Adele -- though he didn't originally sing it -- was 'Dancing in the Dark,' framed in a sublimely shimmering reading by Ludmilla Ilieva." Robert L. Daniels, Daily Variety, 9/30/04