Broadway baby Bernadette Peters hosted a love-in at the Aronoff Saturday night with a little Rodgers and Hammerstein, a lot of Stephen Sondheim and a way of demonstrating that the best show tunes are art songs, even when those glorious pipes of hers were showing a little strain.
You’ve got to love a woman who says the first time she heard R&H’s “Carousel Waltz” “I thought I’d died and gone to heaven” and who calls Sondheim a national treasure.
A good number of the audience were in love with Peters before she ever stepped on stage. If you love Broadway musicals, chances are you’ve seen Bernadette Peters.
She’s certainly been part of my show-going life for almost 40 years. I first saw her when I was still in my teens, in her big break Off-Browadway show “Dames at Sea.” Nobody could sing “It’s Raining in My Heart” like Bernadette.
What followed has been a great career of Sondheim (“Into the Woods,” “Sunday in the Park with George”), not-so-great shows like “The Goodbye Girl,” great performances in not-so-geat shows (“Song & Dance”) revivals of great roles in “On the Town” and “Annie Get Your Gun” and bringing Broadway to a new generation on television.
Peters has fans of all ages – I shared an elevator on the way in with a very young lady, eyes big with excitement, who discovered Peters in the television adaptation of “Cinderella.” I shared another elevator on the way out with a dozen or so seasoned, white-haired ushers who raved.
Peters opened and closed the show with songs from “Gypsy,” welcoming her audience with “Let Me Entertain You” and wrapping with a powerhouse “Rose’s Turn.” (The final, final closer was Irving Berlin.)
More than one person remarked about the elements of Peters’ star power – not just the huge vocal range coming out of that tiny body, but her substance (Peters’ singular song interpretation) and the confidence to choose songs and take them where she will. You’ve never heard “There Is Nothing Like a Dame” like this before.
Peters remarked on the recent revival of “Company” on Broadway, and I’m sure she heard several times before the post-concert reception was over that that was our “Company,” thank you. And even if she didn’t deliver “Being Alive” like Raul Esparza, well, nobody ever played Mabel Normand like Bernadette.
Peters’ musical director Melvin Laird (composer of “Ruthless!” currently playing not so far away aboard Showboat Majestic) came along to conduct the Blue Ash-Montgomery Symphony Orchestra, which couldn’t have dreamed of a better showcase. Big thanks to Caracole for making the evening possible. Let’s do it again!
Jackie Demaline
