Review: Betty Buckley And Christian Jacob Take the Stage at Feinstein's At The Nikko

Betty Buckley is in a league all by herself, perhaps the greatest interpreter of a lyric performing today. Fresh off her smash eight-night engagement at Joe's Pub in NYC, Betty transfixed her fans at Feinstein's with an eclectic selection of tunes, each becoming indelibly her own. Backed by the lyrical soft touch of arranger Christian Jacob on piano, Buckley wove a captivating spell with tender songs of love found, lost, or desired.

Opening with John Prine's poignant poetry in "Angel from Montgomery," Buckley segues into Sondheim's "Not a Day Goes By," a song of loss and she rips your heart out. There's little flash in her presentations, but she can emphasize a moment with a perfectly timed increase in volume. Her decades of acting experience allows her to delve deep into each lyric and inhabit the character's skin with total authenticity. She interprets Dylan's separation song "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" from the female perspective and also makes you cry with Johnny Mandel's "Where Do You Start?" with haunting lyrics by Alan and the late Marilyn Bergman.

Buckley would step backstage to allow Jacob room to shine, then calmly grab her mic to deliver a sublime version of Sting's "Fragile, a tribute to Ben Linder, an American civil engineer who was killed by the Contras in 1987 while working on a hydroelectric project in Nicaragua. Two numbers from Buckley's friend composer Jason Robert Brown highlights her remarkable choice of material. "Hope," written after the 2016 election, speaks to inner strength and optimism in the face of overwhelming futility. When she sings "Fear never wins," we believe her with all our might. "Love Again" tells the story of a woman of a certain age uncertain about falling in love with a younger man. Buckley joked that she'd have no issue with this but had to inhabit this woman's fear and trepidation and Buckley sold us on it.

Her newest CD, Betty Buckley Sings Stephen Sondheim is a tribute - song's she's covered previously and new challenges. She closed the set with "No More" from Into the Woods, a song of questioning and weariness. You can run from your issues, but the lyrics state: "Running away- go to it. Where did you have in mind? Have to take care: Unless there's a "where," You'll only be wandering blind. Just more questions. Different kind."

Buckley has stayed the course over the years, weathering through life's joy and turmoil. The truth and honesty in Buckley's voice is centering and consistently focused, no meandering, excesses, or frills. It pierces the soul and stirs you deeply in places perhaps untouched.

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