Linda Lavin

By Michael Dale

We've been touring the country with this show and so often people come up to me after and they say, 'I didn't know you sang,' and I would wonder what they thought I was going to do when they bought their tickets. Did they think I was going to recite Eugene O'Neill monologues?"

Although most of the country knows Linda Lavin best from her hit television series, Alice, a show she says politicized her into a spokeswomen on behalf of working women, to New York audiences she's the show-stopping comic singer from The Mad Show and It's a Bird… It's a Plane… It's Superman, who returned to Broadway after gaining national fame to give sensational turns in such productions as Broadway Bound, Gypsy, The Tale Of The Allergist's Wife, and Hollywood Arms.

Joined by the legendarily dexterous Billy Stritch at piano, with Steve Doyle on bass and her husband Steve Bakunas on drums, Lavin's brief stint at The Metropolitan Room, which ends Monday, May 7^th, is a funny and dynamic hour of reminiscences, both personal and professional, featuring the vivacious vocals of a warm and engaging entertainer.

She sings what the showtune fans want, for sure. There's "The Boy From…" sung with an overly relaxed breathiness that spoofs Astrud Gilberto's performance of "The Girl From Ipanima," a rousing "You've Got Possibilities" and a Gypsy pairing of "Small World" and "Together," duetting with Stritch. She also reprises her rendition of the TV theme song to Alice, but as combined with the story of her experiences leaving a Broadway drained of opportunities for a Los Angeles that didn't quite know what to do with her, the lyric takes on a fresh and personal meaning.

Lavin's eclectic mix of material goes as far back as 1912 with the suggestive "So Is Your Old Lady" ("I love a good song about infidelity."), followed by a sumptuous pairing of "Long Ago And Far Away" with "It Amazes Me." There are snazzy jazz versions of "Hey, Look Me Over" and "Rhode Island Is Famous For You" and beautifully sensitive "The Song Remembers When."

Describing her early career, Linda Lavin says she fancied herself as a "Jewish Edith Piaf" performing in an assortment of Greenwich Village clubs, all of them having the word "downstairs" in their names. "I'm happy to finally be on street level!," she jokes. Street level couldn't be happier to have her.

by Michael Dale
www.broadwayworld.com

Songs and Confessions of a One-Time Waitress
Peter Leavy
Cabaret Scenes

Linda Lavin is a pixie-sized bundle of energy, aglow with pleasure at being in New York and presenting her show at the Metropolitan Room. Although she never does much with her show's title, other than note that in her early wannabee years in New York, she was indeed a waitress, her autobiographical narrative from those years through successes in cabaret, theater and television, was charming, nostalgic, and often moving.

The reminiscences are frequently wry and ironic, sometimes laced with amusing self-deprecation. Referring to her then-novice status, Lavin notes, "I sang I'm Still Here, when I'd been nowhere." It is a bit of a stretch, since the versatile performer had her Equity card even before she had a college degree. More to the point, perhaps, with years of singing and acting behind her and Tony and Drama Desk Awards to her credit, Songs and Confessions is a treat, delightfully crafted and intelligently performed. Songs - including a medley from her stint as Mama Rose in Gypsy - are sung with ebullience in a voice that ranges from velvety to smoky, handsomely accompanied by Billy Stritch, bassist Steve Doyle and drummer Steve Bakunas. And if there are those who doubt that stand-up comedy works in cabaret, direct them to Linda Lavin at the Metropolitan Room.

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