To date, it seems as if Scott Siegel can produce just about anyone as part of his endless array of shows at Town Hall (Broadway By The Year, Broadway Unplugged, Nightlife Awards). He has now outdone himself in Broadway Originals. To find the original performers who appeared in Broadway shows dating as far back as 1960 and actually produce them on stage singing their original songs is a feat to admire.

Opening the evening with more recent vintage was Lucie Arnaz, looking smashingly youthful in short red and sparkly little dress, to recreate her 1979 “They’re Playing Our Song.” Let’s take a giant step back in time and stretch the limits to Off-Off Broadway, which Scott did. It’s 1960, 48 years ago, and a little gal with a charming soprano voice named Rita Gardner was making her stage debut as Louisa in The Fantasticks singing “They Were You.” Jerry Lanning was playing opposite Angela Lansbury as Patrick Dennis in Mame in 1966, regaling audiences with the title song. Pam Myers was making her Broadway debut in 1970 as Marta in Sondheim’s Company with “Another Hundred People.” In 1973 D’Jamin Bartlett won a Drama Desk Award for her role of Petra in A Little Night Music and recreated the knock-out “The Miller’s Son.”

In 1980, Terri White portrayed old woman Joice Heth in Barnum and once again hobbled thru “Thank God I’m Old.” Moving onward to 1994 was the funny and fabulous Gary Beach who appeared in La Cage as Albin, and in Beauty and the Beast as the original Lumiere with an uproarious medley “Keep It Gay"/"La Cage"/"Beauty and the Beast.” Lest we forget, Cheryl Freeman “The Acid Queen” in The Who’s Tommy (1993), is as fierce now as then. The man with fan club in tow, Robert Cuccioli, Tony nominated for his role in Jekyll & Hyde in 1997, continues to produce goose bumps with “This Is The Moment.”

There were other more recent Broadway Originals on the bill, but the real trip down memory lane was about the earlier years. Closing the show was Karen Morrow with “I Had A Ball” (1964). My sentiments too!

Sandi Durell
Cabaret Scenes
October 19, 2008
www.cabaretscenes.org