Review: BACKSTAGE BABBLE LIVE Bubbles Over with On-Stage Broadway Talent and High-Spirited Host at 54 Below

England may have its recently crowned senior citizen King Charles, but the merry old land of musical theatre has a young Charles as its own Prince of Podcasts, Personality, and Preservation. It’s Charles Kirsch, who has branched out from his online presence (presenting theatre folks sharing their memories, coordinating cast reunions and trivia contests) to a new series of live shows featuring long-careered singer-actors at 54 Below. The second extravaganza took place on Monday, July 17, and was a well-paced parade of Broadway history with stars recalling memorable roles and bringing back the associated songs. The flashbacks were a savvy mix of famous and less familiar fare, embracing the past as Backstage Babble Live, a lively event that packed the room and had real impact.

There was a lot of history crossing that stage, with performers reprising numbers they’d sung on the Great White Way as far back as the 1970s. Giving the proceedings a uniquely touching quality was the sweet meeting of the generations, with these still very vital veterans being welcomed by — and conversing with — a respectful master of ceremonies who’s still in his teens, but who is immersed in musical theatre lore. As he’d previously interviewed these folks at length, and they know of his fond fandom, there was a rekindled sense of appreciating each other’s appreciation. It was palpable. Michael Lavine again was musical director, his piano work full of authentic theatrical stylishness and apt variety and verve. 

Chipper cheerleader Charles began the night by singing the cute, brief theme song that followers of his “Backstage Babble” podcasts hear him do at the beginning of each of its more than 150 episodes. One of its lyric’s lines, consisting of questions, figured into his line of questioning sometimes:  “What was it like–working with him, working with her?” For example, the ever-radiant Christine Andreas spoke of her time with Dina Merrill and Kitty Carlisle in the revival of On Your Toes and gave a grateful audience two numbers from its score, mining laughs with “It’s Got To Be Love” and then nailing a nuanced and poignant version of the ultimate bittersweet ballad, “Glad To Be Unhappy.” 

Although a nightclub’s drink minimum doesn’t apply to the performers, some of these artists must have been served water from the Fountain Of Youth because, although we can “do the math” when it’s mentioned the year they did certain musicals, everybody looked quite hale and hardy, spry and spunky, for the most part. Older characters were actually the protagonists in a musical called Half Time and original cast member Lori Tan Chin rose to the occasion to deliver the impactful “The Waters Rise.”      

Karen Mason, fully in character, revisited Sunset Boulevard’s mighty “As If We Never Said Goodbye” with vulnerability and volcanic build. She’d played the show’s intense Norma Desmond character many times, sometimes pre-scheduled, but often on short notice as the standby. Retold was an incident that became fairly well known back in the day that involved ticket sales, a star, a fit, and a fax. 

Two prominent pages from the Stephen Sondheim songbook of history brought forth emotion and rare appearances. Ken Jennings, Tobias in the original production of Sweeney Todd, blithely announced that he is 75 years old as he zipped about, talked about once going up on his lyric to “Not While I’m Around” and wildly ad-libbing. Then he crooned it – not 100% pristine on every note, but with the words and heart and emotion all in the right places. Thrillingly, D’Jamin Bartlett (the most recent interviewee on the “Broadway Babble” podcasts) from the original 1973 cast of A Little Night Music dazzled the audience with her character’s solo, the Olympic fleet feat called “The Miller’s Son,” garnering the most prolonged applause of the night. She also talked about the frighteningly short rehearsal time she had (practically none) to go on as a last-minute replacement for an actress who was let go. To her credit, she graciously did not use the word “fired” or name the woman who’d had the role. The same classy approach was employed by Josie de Guzman who came on to talk about her very similar experience being thrown into the major role of Sarah in the revival of Guys and Dolls, and bringing bubbliness to the Babble evening with a solid rendition of “If I Were a Bell.” She amusingly related how she’d once gone blank on five words in the number  — the five oft-repeated words of the title phrase! 

The talk was consistently entertaining, down to earth, and frank. The “F” word reared its ugly head. Of course, when I use that term, I mean the “F” word in the Broadway lexicon: “Flop.” But Judy Kaye wryly coined the phrase of the night with a gentler euphemism; she called them the shows that were “Less Than Successful.” In her case, she was thinking about the “What were they thinking?” production of Oh, Brother!--- glomming a Shakespeare plot onto a Middle East setting with slapschtick, a camel, armed revolutionaries, and jabs at consumerism. Nevertheless, thanks to a twinkle in her eye and tongue in cheek, she made its boisterous number “A Loud and Funny Song” an audience-pleaser, even inviting a sing-along opportunity on the “La-la-la” part. At least it got to Broadway, to open on November 10, 1981 (and close the next day). The Baker’s Wife was even less “Less Than Successful,” closing on the road, but Teri Ralston was at 54 Below to give Backstage Babble the backstory of it and “Chanson,” the opening number written for her – in her hands, it remains lovely, as she proved for us again.  An oddity in the “Less Than Successful” attempts was Chu Chem, billed as “the first Chinese-Jewish musical.” Thom Sesma, a “survivor” of the short-lived (and arguably short-sighted) 1989 production, remarked that the stereotype-laden references scattered through the text were “like classified documents scattered about a private resort.” Evidence presented included playing a snippet of a cast recording, and two other numbers sung live: one by him and one wacky, tacky item handled with brio by the game Michael Lavine.     

Mark York sat in on piano to helm a special treat: “You’re the first audience to hear this,” he informed the eager theatre-loving crowd. It was a song called “Being Me” that repurposed music and lyrics by Cy Coleman and Avery Corman written for a musical called The Great Ostovsky, on hold after an initial production months before Coleman’s passing in 2004. Steven Skybell and Michele McConnell shared the duet, with vocal elegance and an earnest approach. 

Loni Ackerman talked about sharing the stage with the unpredictable, mischievous Robert Morse in So Long, 174th Street (which, when revived, reverted to the title of its source material, Enter Laughing). This was one of the most effective segments, getting straight “A”s for Chumminess, Chattiness, and Charm as the actress seemed especially comfortable with herself, her history, and her host. In response to questions, she explained how Morse was at her audition, one she was glad to get because at the time she was on Broadway in The Magic Show, relegated to “being sawed in half” daily, and told how she landed the “girlfriend” role opposite Morse (“a clown”), which included their duet “Being with You.” And this night, in his only other singing moment, Charles stepped in quite effectively as her partner. Looking at the audience, she quipped, “Just pretend I’m 50 years younger.”  Just before it was time to say “so long,” So Long, 174th Street was represented again with the hilarious showstopper “The Butler’s Song” delivered with panache by Jim Brochu. 

Some performers bantered smoothly with the informed and ingratiating Charles Kirsch while the preferred M.O. of others was to quickly take center stage to deliver remarks directly to the crowd, as they would in a solo cabaret show sans host. This created unfortunate awkwardness, as the chosen “solution” was to look at the waiting, genial gentleman and say something to the effect of “You don’t need to stay for this.” He took it in stride and strode off. Some audience members chuckled, others may have interpreted this as an intended helpful nudge to prevent him from being “trapped” on stage uncomfortably. But it risks coming across as dismissive, especially in contrast to the warmer back-and-forths. It may just be a lack of clear pre-show communications for an evening that otherwise benefited from a refreshing sense of relaxed naturalness and camaraderie. (No director is credited, but the courteous Kirsch had his intros and facts well in hand, rather than having a script in hand.)

The mix of anecdotes and insights, rarely sighted and more ubiquitous actors, samples of scores that were landmark hits and those that missed the mark, is a satisfying combo platter. This edition may have put the spotlight on some of those “Less Than Successful” shows, but this show was “More Than Successful”! Longtime readers of this website’s contents first encountered Charles Kirsch an endearing and engaging host when he got his start as one of the “kid reviewers” here at BroadwayWorld half a lifetime ago, at the age of eight! There will be more about him in an upcoming profile feature here and more of him on stage, with guests in a Tony Award-themed Backstage Babble Live, back at 54 Below on August 28. Certainly, C.K. as M.C. is Broadway’s new B.F.F.!   

Visit the 54 Below website HERE and get tickets to the August 28th Backstage Babble Live performance HERE.

THIS is the Backstage Babble website and the Backstage Babble Instagram Page is HERE.

      The photo of Charles Kirsch used in this article is from Backstage Babble Live, 2022

 

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