Review - Broadway Originals: Matinee Ladies

"Let's see if we can do this without a microphone," peeped Jo Sullivan Loesser, as she prepared to fill the 1,495-seat Town Hall with "Somebody, Somewhere," which she introduced in the 1956 original Broadway production of The Most Happy Fella. While the age of the widow of the great Frank Loesser is a fact you'll not find via Google, let's just say she's a few decades beyond the point where audiences would expect to hear such lovely, expressive and, yes, loud soprano tones from an unamplified voice. The house, still and silent for those few minutes of bliss, finally erupted with appreciative cheers for the brief reminder of a time when all Broadway musicals were sung that way.

Broadway Originals, the traditional Sunday afternoon finale to Town Hall's annual Broadway Cabaret Festival, was quite dominated by the ladies this year, particularly older ladies showing they still have the voices, acting skills and stage savvy to delight a crowd of musical theatre lovers.

Carole Demas, for example, recreated her role as Grease's original Sandy with a charming, "It's Raining on Prom Night." When she removed the bulky bath robe she wore for the number, the 70-year-old actress not only revealed a knockout figure in a slinky black dress, but a knockout belt for her reprise of "Sandra Dee."

Lucie Arnaz, happily danced about to the title tune from They're Playing Our Song, before telling how she caught the recent L.A. Reprise concert staging of the show and was disappointed that her character's 11 o'clock number, "I Still Believe In Love," was replaced with another song. With rumors flying of that production's possible move to Broadway, Arnaz's heartfelt rendering of the song's defiantly optimistic sentiment was a convincing argument for putting it back in.

After a rousing, "Nobody Does It Like Me," which she introduced in Seesaw, Michele Lee, who directed the concert, told the audience how director Michael Bennett wasn't happy with the finale song she sang as Gittel Mosca, the Bronx dancer who got burned too many times by love, but who nevertheless was willing to give it another go. As she explained, the star shared a cab to the theatre with composer Cy Coleman on the day before the opening, and he let her know that he and lyricist Dorothy Fields had a new finale for her. Lee then held up a cassette tape player to the microphone and let the audience hear a bit of Coleman singing and playing the demo he gave her of, "I'm Way Ahead," a soliloquy of mending a broken heart that might be called, "Gittel's Turn," before a thrilling recreation of that demanding musical scene.

Though the concert generally sticks to the theme of having performers sing numbers from roles they originated on Broadway (or sang as an original cast member of a Broadway revival), creator/writer/host Scott Siegel jumped at the opportunity to include Marilyn Maye in the program as a sort of Broadway Pre-Original. As explained in her latest cabaret show down at The Metropolitan Room, during the 60s Maye was contracted to RCA Records and was often assigned to record songs from upcoming Broadway shows in hopes of scoring a hit before opening night. The zesty 82-year-old's medley of "Step To The Rear," "Sherry," "I'll Never Fall In Love Again" and "Cabaret," Broadway standards that she originated on vinyl, was a wonderful crowd-pleaser.

The impressive collection of talent taking the stage throughout the swift-moving three-hour show included many faces not seen on Broadway in a while, as well as more recent favorites: Loni Ackerman ("Men" from So Long, 174th Street), Maureen Silliman ("Diary of a Homecoming Queen" from Is There Life After High School and the title song from I Remember Mama), Stephanie D'Abruzzo ("There's a Fine, Fine Line" from Avenue Q), Sarah Uriarte Berry ("The Joy You Feel" from The Light In The Piazza), Christiane Noll ("Back to Before" from Ragtime), Nancy Opel ("It's a Privilege to Pee" from Urinetown) and Christa Moore ("Dancing All The Time" from Big and a medley of Louise's musical moments from Gypsy).

And yes, the guys did have a voice this year. Two, actually. John Tartaglia may excel at puppetry, but his "solo" performance of Avenue Q's "Purpose" showed him to be a very engaging performer, even while empty-handed. Tom Wopat reinterpreted his Annie Get Your Gun number, "My Defenses Are Down" in a breezy light jazz arrangement, but returned completely in character to reprise his anguished demand for appreciation from A Catered Affair, "I Stayed."

A new feature for this year's concert had performers stepping out to tell little anecdotes about being in their original productions. Some were humorous, like Stephanie D'Abruzzo telling of a backstage visit from Lauren Bacall, who said she couldn't wait for the Avenue Q cast album to come out so she could sing along to "It Sucks To Be Me." But two of the afternoon's most touching moments were associated with a pair of the country's most vulnerable periods. Though Michele Lee wasn't an original cast member of How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, she came in very early in the run to replace the pregnant Bonnie Scott and played Rosemary at the show's first performance after President Kennedy was assassinated. She recalled a moment late in the second act when her character, alone on stage, sang a slow, sincere reprise of "I Believe In You." While singing of, "the cool, clear eyes of a seeker of wisdom and truth," and of hearing, "the sound of good, solid judgment whenever you talk," she felt a connection with the audience as the Loesser lyric brought to everyone's mind the image of their fallen leader. Similarly, Nancy Opel told of Urinetown's first performance after 9/11 before a sparsely filled house. Afterwards, it seemed to her that the whole audience was waiting for the cast at the stage door. It seemed the producers had given free tickets to grounded airline workers, many of whom wanted to tell the actors that before that night they didn't think they'd ever be able to laugh again.

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