Stephen Holden-New York Times

The pop-gospel singer Vivian Reed isn’t the first performer to explore the emotional extremes of the great Sondheim torch song “Losing My Mind,” from “Follies.” But she is the first I can remember to make it the platform for a flailing, semi-operatic mad scene. Ms. Reed is a fiercely elegant performer who holds nothing back. Like Lena Horne at her most imperious, she can be a little scary. On the few occasions she cracks a smile, you sigh with relief.

At the Metropolitan Room on Saturday evening she serenaded a packed house with a grand theatrical performance of “Standards and More,” a new show the likes of which are seldom seen nowadays. The rough-hewed arrangements for a quartet, led by her conductor and pianist William Foster McDaniel, lent the concert rugged pop-gospel underpinnings. The musicians included Damon Duewhite on drums and Karen Poleshuck on cello; Gary Foote’s bass substituted for a guitar.

Ms. Reed, fondly remembered as a prime mover in the ’70s revue “Bubbling Brown Sugar,” has never received her full due. She belongs to a mode of Broadway gospel-schooled belters who transform pop songs into spiritual testament. The heavy emotional baggage she brought to modern standards like “Up Where We Belong,” “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher” and “Believe in Yourself” (from “The Wiz”) constituted a weighty load. Transcendence may be achieved, but the cost is steep. The humor in a song with comic potential like the 1960 Irma Thomas hit “Don’t Mess With My Man” was played down.

Ms. Reed brought a stentorian drama to many of the numbers. Her broad and expressive body language evoked a diva proudly spreading her wings. Several times, her singing suddenly leapt to a higher register and gave her voice the jagged luminosity of lightning flashes.

The operatic connection was most apparent in her rendition of the Billie Holiday classic “Strange Fruit,” which she sang as a duet with the operatic soprano Janinah Burnett. During the performance, Ms. Reed’s voice alternated between a classical soprano and jazz-gospel declamation.

Her time may have arrived.

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