Cabaret Review By Ron Fassler . . . .
If you’re familiar with the expression “shot out of a canon,” keep that image in mind while I describe what it was like from the moment Beth Leavel hit the stage at 54 Below January 2nd. She was on! And if you think that starting at such a high leaves a performer nowhere to go, keep in mind this is Beth Leavel we’re talking about; someone capable of always upping things to the next, well… level. Of course, this might mean you’re on a different planet or in another solar system by the time she’s done with you, but let me tell you, that didn’t seem to bother the packed audience one single bit.
A Tony Award winner for her hilarious performance in the title role of the 2006 musical The Drowsy Chaperone, Leavel has appeared in thirteen Broadway shows to date. In addition to many regional theatre turns in such fabled roles as Dolly and Miss Hannigan, you have a consummate professional with vocal chords of steel. With musical director Phil Reno, accompanied by Michael Keunnen (bass) and Perry Cavari (drums), the musicianship was top-notch all evening, especially in a section where she played “audience choice,” asking for suggestions of what to sing. She’d do a snippet here, a snippet there and happily took one of mine, “There’s No Business Like Show Business” which the crowd really seemed to enjoy. You believed her when Leavel mentioned how she could do this sort of thing all night. And just when the bit appeared to be running out of steam and it was time to get back to her set list, she took one last suggestion that turned into a full rendition of “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” that was superb.
Leavel offers a kind of inspired lunancy that must have been what it was like to see Dorothy Loudon back in the 1960s at Blue Anel or some other Greenwich Village boite. Like Loudon, the character she brings on stage is a bit of a put-on, though probably not too far from each of their natural personas. Let’s call it an exaggerated sense of self, ego run rampant, that allows for all of us being in on the joke. And Leavel doesn’t shy from taking things to extremes like when she brought out her Tony Award for emphasis at the Height of one of her showstoppers or encouraging even more applause at a number’s finish. It’s enough to make Milton Berle look shy.
Opening the evening with a full throttle “Broadway Baby” is Leavel telling us exactly who she is. Her “I Get a Kick Out of You” was her letting us in on just who she gets a kick out of (spoiler alert: it’s her husband, the wonderful Adam Heller, recently of Some Like it Hot) and her third song, Ballroom’s “Fifty Percent,” was honest and deeply felt in a way that invoked Loudon’s version in a most flattering way. Though, truth be told, I began thinking of the Loudon connection from the get-go as it does feel like they are kindred spirits. Of course we were treated to Beatrice Stockwell’s anthem from Drowsy Chaperone, “As We Stumble Along,” allowing her to revel in all of the character’s intoxicated glory. And for a change-up, Leavel performed the ballad “Through the Eyes of Love,” an Oscar nominated Marvin Hamlisch-Carole Bayer Sager tune from the 1978 film Ice Castles.
Her “Sondheim Mashup” was elegant and an audience pleaser, but nothing could really top her singing “Before the Parade Passes By.” Not only were we treated to a genuinely thrilling rendition of it, but Dolly’s monologue that precedes the song as well. Having seen all the recent Dollys . . . Midler, Peters, Murphy and Buckley, I was enraptured watching Leavel pour her heart and soul into the character charging Jerry Herman’s magnificent tune with a shot of adrenalin.
Finishing with “Ladies Who Lunch,” (indefatigable, right?), left most of the crowd fully exhausted. But not Beth Leavel who, I’ve no doubt, could have done a second show fifteen minutes later without breaking a sweat. Luckily, she is doing one more on January 8th next week. So, any of you with a yen for hearing a Broadway belter knock home runs out of the park every time at bat, swing on over to 54 Below.
Beth Leavel will be at 54 Below on January 8th at 7:00 pm, 254 W 54th Street, NYC. For ticket information, please visit www.54below.org.
Photos: Ron Fassler
