JULIE WILSON AT CINEGRILL

Julie Wilson is a songwriter’s dream--a performer who tells a musical story better than anyone since Mabel Mercer and Judy Garland. Opening at the Cinegrill Wednesday night with a show that selectively sampled some of Broadway’s finest theatrical offerings, Wilson revealed a depth and dimension to her art that was giant steps beyond her fine performances at the same venue last year.

Most of the evening was devoted to the richly textured works of Gershwin, Weill, Coward and Sondheim--music that has endless rewards for the performer prepared to plumb the depths.

Wilson probed deeply. In “What Is This Thing Called Love,� for example, she sang the line “You took my heart, then threw it away� with an angry, questioning thrust on the last phrase. Noel Coward’s “In a Bar on the Piccola Marina� was mercilessly milked for every drop of upper-class English satire.

A medley of “One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)� and “The Man That Got Away� stunningly balanced the disenchantment of one song with the frustration of another.

Wilson sang the rarely heard opening verse to “Mad About the Boy,� and provided this listener with a totally new perspective on the song. She was velvety smooth on Kurt Weill’s illusionary “My Ship� and bawdily humorous on Cole Porter’s “Let’s Do It.�

Her program peaked, appropriately, with a closing group of Stephen Sondheim songs. “Boy Can That Boy Fox Trot� was as delightfully suggestive as ever, but Wilson saved her best for the devastating but controlled fury of “Could I Leave You?�

Despite the familiarity of most of the material, virtually everything sounded newly examined and freshly considered. Songs, like the stories they tell, are only as alive as an interpreter can make them. In Julie Wilson’s capable hands, even the most seemingly moribund lyrics find startling new life.

Wilson continues at the Cinegrill through July 18. Shows are at 9 and 11 p.m., Wednesdays through Saturdays.