Donna McKechnie – ‘A Musical Memoir’

By Alix Cohen

Donna McKechnie explodes onto the stage, arms shooting out like fireworks. “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” (Jule Styne/Stephen Sondheim), usually a finale, is here a wake-up song. She beams.

McKecknie tells us she comes from Michigan “the black and white section of The Wizard of Oz…In church, I learned that dancing was as sin.” Every Saturday, she and her mom would go to the movies immersing themselves in MGM musicals. “It was my mother’s rebellion too.” She was allowed to attend ballet class. One gets the feeling dad didn’t know.

By 1959, the young woman came to New York. She lived at the YWCA. Dance class and many theater tickets cost $1.50. “A Lotta Livin’ to Do” (Charles Strouse/Lee Adams) embodies ambition and excitement. Lyric edges are rounded. “Broadway Boogie Woogie” is a swell ‘don’t-call-us-we’ll-call-you novelty song written by Ed Kleban as audition material for the lyricist job in A Chorus Line. I’m surprised more artists don’t feature it. Lyrics are droll, sympathetic and spot-on.

“I first met shy, serious Stephen Sondheim auditioning for the national tour of A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum” (Sondheim’s first outing as both composer and lyricist.) McKechnie played Philia, the virgin. She apparently made director George Abbot laugh- no easy task. We hear one lyric line of “Lovely.”

Next for her was Sondheim’s Company from which she sings eight bars of “You Could Drive a Person Crazy.” The Memoir is comprised of as much entertaining story as song. “Being Alive” follows, eyebrows in a point, hands clasped, a big, emotional inhale before every expression.

“Lucky to Be Me” (usually Gabey’s song) from On the Town arrives a bit too big for its wistful nature. It includes a lush piano instrumental in which one wants to wrap oneself. Ian Herman aptly, unobtrusively vamps during stories, then plays with brio.
The fact McKechnie is twice divorced precedes “One for My Baby.” (Johnny Mercer/Harold Arlen) Piano arrangement is dark and hip. Perched on a stool, the vocalist let’s it rip. Again, taking it down a bit would enhance.

Additional selections are from A Little Night Music and Sweet Charity. It’s easy to imagine McKechnie as Charity Hope Valentine with her deeply distressed interpretation of “Where Am I Going?” (Cy Coleman/Dorothy Fields)

A Chorus Line ends this telling of her colorful history. As Cassie, the artist has performed in four countries. “At the Ballet”
(Marvin Hamlisch/ Edward Kleban), originally sung by three aspiring dancers, was primarily McKechnie’s story. “Music and The Mirror” is excerpted to cheers.

Donna McKechnie’s memoir, Time Steps: My Musical Comedy Life, was published by Simon & Schuster

Photos by Stephen Hanks
Opening: Ian Herman, Ray Kilday, Donna McKechnie, Ray Marchica

Donna McKechnie – A Musical Memoir
MD/Piano- Ian Herman
Ray Marchica- Drums; Ray Kilday-Bass
The Laurie Beechman Theatre 407 West 42nd Street
TheBeechman.com