It’s Annie all grown up and still knocking ‘em dead as a great Broadway belter. How many child stars still have active careers, are looking great and are in demand at age 44? Enter Andrea McArdle, in short black slinky dress, on the Metropolitan Room stage to present her life story in prose and song spurred on by none other than musical director extraordinaire Seth Rudetsky, not only as pianist but, as moderator. This Philly girl by nature, but New York gal at heart, is as energetic a performer as imaginable. She has an easygoing manner that says "relax, enjoy me." From “Zing! Went The Strings of My Heart” to “N.Y.C.,” the song she didn’t get to sing inAnnie, we were ready for an evening’s delight.

The banter between McArdle and Rudetsky is top notch humor and the icing on the cake is Seth’s added harmony vocals on various songs like “Beauty and the Beast.”  Andrea is a powerhouse on Sondheim’s “Everybody Says Don’t” punctuated by Seth’s remark at the end “my hands hurt.”  Little by little, her bio unfolds as she talks about her television career in the 1970s on Welcome Back, Kotter, as Horshack’s sister, with fellow actor John Travolta. Lest we not forget, she was a Tony nominee at the ripe age of 12 for her role as the original Annie and later went on to star on Broadway in Les Miseraqbles, Starlight Express, Beauty and the Beast, to name a few. Funny moments include Seth saying “Talk about Annie. . .Go!” and we learn how Andrea got to Broadway (they could hear her at the back of the house) and, hearing the original tape of Andrea singing “Tomorrow” in 1977, followed by a hysterical characterization with special lyrics that Martin Charnin wrote in 1986 of a grown up Annie.  We hear about all the people who came backstage to say “hello” to Annie; Barbra Streisand, Paul McCartney, Jackie “O”, Liberace. Andrea is a bottomless glass of story-telling and she does it so well!

Her slow, jazzy, sexy take on “You Could Drive A Person Crazy” is more than a pleasant new look at what could be an overdone song. She rocks on “Superstar” and surely is the epitome of a “Broadway Baby” with added parody lyrics “I need a show. . .told my agent Abie even a revival’s fine, maybe Disney’s thinking about a female Shrek.”

Additional songs of note include “If He Walked Into My Life,” “Some People” and Andrea’s grown-up rendition of “Tomorrow.”  Encoring with “Over The Rainbow,” we know she could have gone on and on and we wouldn’t have minded one bit and neither would her friend and audience cheerleader Sybil Shepherd!

On bass was Jeff Ganz and drums Steve Singer. Andrea McArdle will be appearing at the Metropolitan Room August 22-25.

Sandi Durell
Cabaret Scenes
August 13, 2008
www.cabaretscenes.org