Review: Mary Lahti Defines Cabaret by Breaking a Pattern with WOULDA COULDA SHOULDA at Don't Tell Mama

WOULDA COULDA SHOULDA is Mary Lahti's new musical cabaret, all about the musical theater roles she wanted to play but didn't get to. Are you asleep yet? Well, wake up, because it's not the show you think it is. Any number of musical theater actors of varying demographics have created nightclub acts centering around the roles they wish they had played - Alexandra Silber has even created a popular (and entertaining) series on the subject called I Wish: The Roles That Might Have Been that plays 54 Below regularly. But Mary Lahti's show is not (repeat NOT) the same as any of those other club acts about the roles dreamt of but never realized. Woulda Coulda Shoulda is about the roles that Mary Lahti was given but that were TAKEN AWAY from her. Interesting? You bet your Margaret Mary Houlihan it's interesting. It's also hella entertaining, as a nearly at-capacity Original Room at Don't Tell Mama discovered on Saturday.

Woulda Coulda Shoulda has three things going for it: Mary Lahti, Mary Lahti's arrangements, and Mary Lahti's script. The script is made up, entirely, of Mary's personal experiences as a regional theater actress, a concept that is, at best, tricky because (and here is the harsh reality nobody wants to tell actors) nobody wants to hear about your acting gigs. Listening to an actor talk about the plays they did in High School, college, community theater, regional theater, or on tour is not high on anyone's list of conversation topics. Unless you're Austin Pendleton talking about the time Mike Nichols said something hateful to you, Kristin Chenoweth sharing stories about the time you played Tuptim, or Avery Sommers reminiscing about touring in Whorehouse with Ann-Margret, you're behind the curve. But not Mary Lahti, and not here. Each and every story in Would Coulda Shoulda is interesting, riveting, humorous, emotional, and completely worthy of being told, especially in the more-than-capable hands of Mary Lahti, who is clearly an actress with a knack for comedy. Comedy is, indeed, about ninety percent of her show because the sisyphean journey that she has taken as an actress is as funny as it is frustrating, and that humor comes from Mary's core - she insists on it.

Working closely with director Lennie Watts (whom she credits, mightily, in her curtain call thank-yous), Mary has taken all of these tales of Thespianic woe, deconstructed them, given them the proper economy of verbiage, and interspersed them throughout Musical Director Paul Greenwood's deft arrangements, creating a one-woman musical monologue that tells, seamlessly, the story of Mary's life upon the wicked stage (or, as the show subtitle clarifies: MY (ALMOST) LIFE ON THE WICKED STAGE). Regaling the rapt audience with stories of (her potential) Lady Larkin in Once Upon a Mattress, Luisa in The Fantasticks, Sandy in Grease, Rose in Gypsy, and any number of roles in Company, Ms. Lahti kept her audience on the edge of every seat, listening, laughing, and even responding vocally to each setback to her career. With precise comic timing and Vaudevillian inflection, Mary's pace was studied enough to keep the action from ever lagging, with a Chorus Line segment proving particularly impressive. It would be ungallant to remark on Ms. Lahti's age but, since she jokes about it during the show (in a telling remark about a car window), it cannot go unsaid that, in the Chorus Line segment, Mary achieves a feat that would probably give a thirty-year-old a moment or two of hesitation - but not Mary Lahti. Indeed, she plows through her Hamlisch/Kleban number with ferocity and focus, scoring an eruption of applause, mid-show. Her commitment to the number and every aspect of Woulda Coulda Shoulda is admirable, and it renders the show a real winner.

Vocally, Mary is working with a pretty and airy soprano that effectively provides the audience with an inkling of why she was considered for each of these roles lost, and how good she would have been in them. When, late in the show, Mary sits down for a gender-bent Sondheim song, Lahti surprised this writer with some gorgeous low notes that raised into the air a wish that she and Mr. Greenwood might, possibly, revisit her keys for her Fantasticks segment, a musical section that seemed to get away from the singing actress. Perhaps an exploration into lowering the keys even half a step might prove useful to Team Lahti, a trio that, clearly, works well together, in every facet of the production. Indeed, this is some of director Watt's best work to date - his faith in and inspiration from Lahti is apparent in what they have created with Mr. Greenwood, who is as marvelous as ever, especially when lending some luscious vocals to the program.

In a way, Woulda Coulda Shoulda is textbook cabaret viewing - not because it follows a formula or structure or anything one might learn at a cabaret master class, but because it is a prime example of an artist taking something from their life and creating a musical trajectory upon which they can take their audience, a story originating from a personal place that will leave their witnesses with a sense of who they are, what they are about, and how they arrived at this moment in time. Any stranger who wandered into Don't Tell Mama on Saturday looking for a New York cabaret experience would have found it at Woulda Coulda Shoulda, and this reporter has high hopes that many strangers will take a chance on Mary Lahti's new show because it could make cabaret fans out of any newcomer to the art form, as well as opening minds to the concept of asking an actor to tell tales about their life in the theater. Clearly, there are times when it pays off - and Woulda Coulda Shoulda is one of those times.

Mary Lahti WOULDA COULDA SHOULDA: MY (ALMOST) LIFE ON THE WICKED STAGE plays Don't Tell Mama on February 28th and March 4th at 7 pm. For information and tickets visit the Don't Tell Mama website HERE.

THIS is the Mary Lahti website.

Photos by Stephen Mosher

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