Review: Brenda Braxton Cracks The Code With STARS TONIGHT! Premiere at The Green Room 42

Has everyone seen that viral video of Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Sally Field, and Rita Moreno talking about women's friendships and being intentional? (If you haven't HERE it is). These few words about being intentional with the people with whom you want to be friends struck a chord in my heart and I spent a week calling friends from back in the day or reconnecting with friends right here in New York City that I haven't seen in a while. I imagine that many people had that exact same reaction and have spent time on the phone, going for coffee, going for hikes, and being intentional with the people that matter to them.

That was all over the stage last night at The Green Room 42 when Brenda Braxton debuted her new live chat/variety program titled Stars Tonight! The Tony Award nominee for Smokey Joe's Cafe said she hoped that this would be the first of many shows and the audience response from the full house would indicate that everyone else hopes so, too. This was a wonderful night of live theater that does, indeed, deserve to be made into a regular thing, although it might be like trying to capture lighting in a bottle because last night was special, with three women who have been pursuing intentional friendship with each other for most of their lives.

Brenda Braxton is a good chat show host. Throw in the "variety" part of the chat/variety show, and you've got gold because there were a series of musical numbers last night - an opening number titled "Shine a Light" featuring her co-host/sidekick Allison Williams Foster, a defiant "Don't Rain on My Parade" representative of the life of women in show business, a comedic re-imagining of her Smokey Joe's number "Don Juan" and a strong and sexy revisiting of "I'm a Woman," from the same show. There was also an original number titled "Celebrate Love" by a personal friend, Broadway's Bobby Daye, and there was a trio arrangement of "I Am My Own Best Friend" with three women who, very clearly, adore one another: Brenda Braxton, Allison Williams foster, and special guest Bebe Neuwirth. That's a lot of variety for one episode of a chat show, alone worth the trip out to a nightclub, but when you layer in the quality of the chat, what you have is golden.

This was Brenda Braxton's first episode of Stars Tonight! and it is obvious that she is a good interviewer. Whether chatting with the audience, with Allison, or with Bebe and Allison together, Brenda controlled the pace of the program, the topic of conversation, and the ease of her guests. She did this with genuine affection, buckets full of humor, and a set of "Johnny Carson cards" that kept her on track. For a Freshman outing, Brenda mostly aced the interview format (although a lengthy dissertation on Bebe's credits cut into time spent actually interviewing Bebe) and what she accomplished that was most important is that she did not fall prey to that which has plagued many chat show hosts of the past: she let her guest talk. Far too often we have seen chat show hosts that used up more time asking the question than it took the guest to answer, and when the guest did answer, those same hosts interrupted them. Not Brenda Braxton. Last night Brenda was not only interested in hearing Bebe's answers (Allison's, too) - she was interested in having the audience (both live and live stream) hear the answers. With this simple task achieved, Brenda Braxton created a proper chat show and became a fine chat show host.

With the natural progression of the evening giving the audience great (not good - great) musical entertainment and enjoyable informative chat between the women, Stars Tonight! was fully set to be a successful venture. But there was more to it - part of it was the intentionality of the women's friendships (all three women have decades-long relationships) and part of it was the age of the women on the stage, something that Brenda brought to the conversation more than once, at times even going so far as to reference her own age, as well as use the term "Woman of a Certain Age" - and we all know what that means.

Everyone has heard of or read about the syndrome of women aging out in show business, of the industry relegating them to the "invisible woman" once they've reached that "certain age" - it's not a new conversation. Brenda Braxton even has a Facebook group for women over 50 called Act 2. Now What? (HERE is the link). This is not a myth or a fable - show business is ageist, especially when it comes to women. But do you know who isn't ageist when it comes to women in show business? The audience. We love our women over fifty. We love our women over sixty. We love our women over seventy, and all the way up. We want to hear what they have to say, we want to watch Brenda Braxton go all sketch comedy on one musical number and then turn around and go sex bomb on the next. We want Bebe Neuwirth to set the example for how fashionable and fit we can look, and we want Allison Williams Foster to tell us we can choose family over career and still belt out some Kander & Ebb when our best girlfriend asks us to. The people in charge of casting may not respect these treasures of show business enough to give them jobs but the people buying tickets to see small venue entertainment in New York City worship these women without ever thinking about their age unless it's to say to oneself, "Dang, I wish I looked like that" or "Heck, I wish I could move like that." It is very important for Brenda Braxton and her two best chums to stand up and represent for the forgotten women (Brenda's word, not mine) but the example set last night by the display of these three intentional women sets an example for a lot of people. There has been, for a few years now, a stronger development of women supporting women, rather than tearing them down (which has been a thing that we all know about), and that movement also shines a light on creatives empowering one another, rather than leaning into competition (show business has always been considered somewhat cutthroat) or, frankly, on any demographic chipping at each other, rather than supporting one another. To that end, Brenda Braxton actually stood on the stage last night and advised that we should never attempt to diminish someone else's light. These are wise words that we all need to hear, perhaps more often than we think. So when the coolest, grooviest, goofiest, most adorable fireball of talent not only says the words but, then, puts the power of sisterly support on display right in front of you, you sort of go home wanting to call your oldest friend, your best friend, or your newest friend and be intentional with them.

Find someone in your life who looks at you the way Bebe Neuwirth looks at Brenda Braxton. Find someone in your life who laughs with you the way Allison Williams Foster laughs with Brenda Braxton. Then be intentional with them.

But don't start a chat show with them. Brenda Braxton's got that covered. And everyone working in the cabaret and concert industry of New York City, everyone who is a patron of the cabaret and concert venues of New York City needs to intentionally get their tickets and get their bumms in the seats, luv, because Brenda Braxton and Stars Tonight! has the potential to do for in-person chat programs what Seth Rudetsky and Stars in the House did for virtual chat shows.

The extraordinary Stars Tonight Band is Skip Ward on Bass, David Silliman on Drums, Andrew Gutauskas on Saxophone and the hardest working woman in the business, Tracy Stark, at the piano acting as Musical Director.

Find great shows to see at The Green Room 42 website HERE.

Visit the Brenda Braxton website HERE.

Visit the Bebe Neuwirth Twitter page HERE.

Allison Williams Foster has a Facebook page HERE.

Photos by Stephen Mosher; Visit the Stephen Mosher website HERE.

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