We are delighted that you will join us again in Palm Springs at CV Rep? What keeps you coming back?
I love Palm Springs –after all, what a musical tradition! Sinatra and Van Heusen and the rest. A song-full place. Coachella has been terrific to me…and then, my life is spent so much on the road, too often away from my three teenagers, to be sure, but with the joys of the road as some compensation. A new room to discover, a new audience to woo, new friends to make. I wrote about the pleasures and perils of the cabaret-concert road for the New York Times just as the pandemic ended and we girl singers went out on the road again.(Read More)
Tell us about the essence of this show and how it has come together.
“Life And Loves Of A Broadway Baby”, as the show’s called, came together because, in addition to the straight concerts I do of Sondheim and Legrand, I wanted to do a kind of bollito mistoof a show – you know, like the wonderful Italian dish where you simmer together all kinds of meats and vegetables into a single delicious stew. This show has some Sondheim, some Legrand, lots of American standards , old songs and new songs – and lets me tell tales about my showgirl family tradition in the Ziegfeld follies. It’s a sexy kaleidoscope of my life and my favorite songs. I am still just a Broadway Baby, pounding 42nd street in search of a show. We all are!
I have to be honest, I knew of you, but didn’t really know your body of work, which of course is utterly impressive on Broadway and Off-Broadway, concerts, recording, etc. It was when I saw you sing Children and Art (a role you played in Kennedy Center’s 2002 Sondheim Celebration) on Zoom for “Take Me to the World – A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration” where you were utterly mesmerizing that I was hooked. I am, of course, wondering if you ever worked with Sondheim directly. If so, can you tell us about that?
Oh, so glad you liked that. The height of the pandemic, alone in my upstairs room – and I actually had to go make dinner for the kids when it ended! What could be more memorable.? And yes, I did work with Sondheim directly — I talk about it in the liner notes to my new album, Sondheim In The City. We exchanged countless e-mails when I was recording my first album of his work, Sondheim Sublime. He was a wonderful mix of encouragement and excitement , along with firm strictures on performance of his work. Basically, he told me that once I sang the song as it was written , I was free to be a ‘girl singer’, meaning a mischievous jazz-minded embroiderer. He was wonderful fun – once . during a rehearsal for one of his shows, he told me semi-seriously to be sure to sing the apostrophes in his songs – to sing so that the audience heard ‘Couldn’t’ complete with the little silence between the ‘n’ and ‘t’! I did, and he liked that. A genius, and demanding, but always with a sense of pleasure and fun.
Any upcoming Broadway or Off-Broadway projects?
Adam Gopnik and David Shire are cooking up a musical about the life of Eleanor of Aquitaine that we hope to do first in concert form in the fall. Meanwhile, I’m hard at work on the memoir I’ve been promising for years…but always game for a new show.
What do you want audiences to leave with after seeing your cabaret?
I want them to be …delighted! Someone called me recently a mix between Julie Andrews and Julie London and I think that’s a good description of my mature singing style – I want audiences to revel in wonderful words and piercing Broadway singing, but I want them to find a few sexy winks or two in the room. I love to levitate a room as best I can with a mix of good singing and funny speaking – I’m a natural story-teller, can’t help it — and I hope to do so here.