To tell the truth, Razzle Dazzle! My Life Behind the Sequins all comes down to Mitzi Gaynor’s 52-year marriage to Jack Bean. She called him “Daddy” and he called her “Yummy” and it worked. Mitzi Gaynor was a cute and ebullient singer and dancer, but their relationship was the heart of Gaynor’s musical career as well as her New York debut at Feinstein’s at Loews Regency.

Their relationship also grounded this musical “tell-all” with a base of practicality. Gaynor enjoyed a glamorous career in the 1950s, a golden age for Hollywood movie musicals. Jack Bean helped jump-start Gaynor’s singing/dancing career in There’s No Business Like Show Business, managed her, and eventually led her into a well-known performance in the screen version of South Pacific. When her film career ended, Bean steered her into a career of concert performances around the country and a successful series of television specials beginning in the late 1960s. Without over-sentimentality in Razzle Dazzle!, Gaynor’s gratitude and love for Jack Bean are obvious, bringing distinctive warmth to her show.

Gaynor delivers a taste of her glamorous, very focused professional life to Feinstein’s, and the club helped with providing the ballroom instead of the cabaret room. The ballroom stage is small and crowded with Gaynor’s quartet led by Music Director and pianist Ed Czach, with Paul Kreibich on drums, Gary Festeruk on keyboard and bassist David Finck. A screen is set up on one side of the stage and shows film clips while Gaynor zips offstage to change. She has a wardrobe of six spectacular Bob Mackie gowns, and a sailor suit for her opening number, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Honey Bun.”

With an engaging personality, Gaynor is a delightful storyteller, delivering anecdotes with humor and a convincing straightforward honesty. That is her strength. The stage is too small for dancing, which was a staple in her performances. Her singing voice is light, overwhelmed by the band, and she is most effective singing snappy tunes like “Everything Old Is New Again” (Peter Allen and Carole Bayer Sager) without extended notes. She delivers a touching rendition of Irving Berlin's "There's No Business Like Show Business" and an enthusiastic medley from South Pacific.

Fortunately for her, the razzle-dazzle of Hollywood was grounded by her fulfilling marriage and, at 78, Mitzi Gaynor is a likeable show business broad who will charm her New York audience just as she did film fans.

Elizabeth Ahlfors
Cabaret Scenes
May 19, 2010
www.cabaretscenes.org