Lovely, chic and personable, Teri Ralston, a Broadway veteran, opened her show with “Why Don’t We Do This More Often?” (Allie Wrubeland/Charles Newman), a casually upbeat and inviting ditty that invited us into the charms of her show.

Eschewing deep drama, presenting a humorous quick study of her professional life, with emphasis on her early success, Ms. Ralston used her lightly elegant voice to run through what she called an “eclectic evening.” She mused on how she always seemed to be cast as older than she was.

The program included: a Helen Morgan tribute—mostly songs from Show Boa; a Roy Rogers tribute—featuring pretty much all the lyrics to “Home on the Range” (Daniel E. Kelley/Dr. Brewster M. Higley) and other Western-style songs; and, in a total change of style, the melancholy “Ballad of the Sad Young Men” (Thomas J. Wolf, Jr./Fran Landesman). She sang a bit of Brel, a soupçon of Billy Joel, a song from Your Own Thing, another from Miss Liberty and spoke of her influences, but made it clear that all this was B.S.—before Sondheim.

She considers the Sondheim musicals she appeared in to be the pinnacle of her career.  “We’re Gonna Be All Right” (music: Richard Rodgers) and “Losing My Mind,” with their typical Sondheim vocal demands, did seem to open her up both vocally and dramatically.

Her Musical Director, Shelly Markham, the bassist Jered Egan and the drummer Ray Marchica seemed like a little family up there on the Beechman stage, providing intimate backup.

Joel Benjamin
Cabaret Scenes
June 25, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org