Alice Ripley and Emily Skinner: Together Again

They may not look like identical twins anymore, but Alice Ripley and Emily Skinner are still the best sister act in town. Reuniting for the second night of the Broadway Cabaret Festival, the two Side Show stars proved that as wonderful as they are individually, they're best as a pair, playing off of each other's energies and styles to excellent effect. They remain the only performers to be Tony-nominated for a single performance in a musical, and their two albums of duets have only further proven their unique chemistry.

The high-octane concert let the ladies perform some remarkable solos and duets from new and classic shows. The wide-ranging songlist featured numbers by Sondheim, Menken & Ashman, LaChiusa and Berlin, giving the ladies a wide range of styles with which to show off their vocal and dramatic prowess.

Ms. Skinner breathed emotional new life into Sondheim's "No One Is Alone," and ripped up the stage with Menken & Ashman's "Poor Unfortunate Souls" from Disney's The Little Mermaid. (Ripley herself aptly described the latter song as "f**king amazing.") Her "Sleepy Man" from The Robber Bridegroom was beautifully understated, and her ode to Mae West ("Come Up And See Me Sometime") was pure comic sensuality.

Ms. Ripley, more of a belter than soprano Skinner, wailed out a powerful "You Have to Be There" from Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus' new musical Kristina, poignantly expressed the many levels of bipolar disorder with "I Miss the Mountains" from Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey's Feeling Electric, and roared out a fierce "She's Gone," a cut song from Side Show. She also performed a hilariously sultry "Broadway Baby" from Sondheim's Follies, making it very clear exactly what she would do to be in a show.

But as strong as the solos were, the duets were undisputably the high points of the concert. The ladies elegantly expressed pain with Sondheim's "Every Day a Little Death" from A Little Night Music, hammed it up with the silly "Past My Prime" from Li'l Abner, or charmingly revisited the classics "Sisters" (from Irving Berlin's White Christmas) and "Ohio" from Comden, Green, and Bernstein's Wonderful Town. While they each have unique singing styles, their voices fit together to form a wonderfully complex whole, and whether singing in unison or harmonizing, they can bring out delightful nuances in whatever they sing.

Naturally, the evening had to end with the standard duets the ladies made famous, and as they wailed out "Who Will Love Me As I Am" and "I Will Never Leave You" from Side Show. The audience roared appreciatively and leapt to their feet for an extended ovation after each number, clearly delighted to see the stars together again, singing the songs that made them famous. No doubt, when the album of the concert is released early next year, it will become as popular as its two predecessors, and with any luck, the duo will reunite for many more concerts.

Photographs by  Genevieve Rafter Keddy

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