“It’s exciting. I fooled you all,” said 77-year-old Debbie Reynolds and then sang into “I’m Still Here,” (with parody lyrics) to a cheering audience. Bold in style in a green sequined outfit slit up to. . . !, she speed-talked through her shock at the small Carlyle room, forty-two touring weeks a year performing in 2,000-seat houses, the $50 million lost in three failed marriages, and sixty-one years in show biz.  “I hope you’re picking up your own check?,” Debbie said in an aside to a step-daughter (from one of her first husbands) sitting down front.

Quick with the jokes, gravelly-voiced, it was an evening of 1-2 punch of Hollywood stories, celebrity friends (Astaire, Gable, Hepburn, Sinatra) and short songs from her lengthy career:  “Abba Dabba Honeymoon,” Unsinkable Molly Brown (Oscar Nominated 1964), her Broadway debut, Irene, with nice a rendition of “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows.”

Was it intermission? No, a costume change as Reynolds returned in black dress, blonde wig and fake nose for a Streisand impersonation that was side-splitting, followed by multi-song snippets tributizing dear friend Garland, including “Get Happy,” “The Man That Got Away” and “Over the Rainbow.”

A vaudevillian, far too exaggerated, she remains the loveable Debbie Reynolds, closing with “Tammy” and “Thanks for coming to see the old broad!”

Reynolds is at the Carlyle the month of June.

Sandi Durell
Cabaret Scenes
June 4, 2009
www.cabaretscenes.org