Betty Buckley admits she loves men, but it seems like she has a teeny-weeny chip on her shoulder when it comes to the predominance of male musical roles on Broadway. Turning the negative into a positive, she's channelled that chip into a lively and highly entertaining evening of show tunes written by and for men, but sung by her.

Opening with a sensational “I Can See It” Buckley proves she's still a vocal powerhouse and can sell a song no matter whom it was written for. Her interest in the boys of Broadway started in Ft. Worth, Texas, when teenage Betty Lynn, infatuated with the film of West Side Story, and Russ Tamblyn in particular, wanted more than anything to be a Jet, carrying this obsession literally everywhere, singing to herself - “The Jets are in church. The Jets'll take communion.”

Sondheim, who features heavily in the evening, may have found his lyrics to “Maria” a bit wet, but Buckley's version is the most poignant I've ever heard, and breathtakingly stunning for its simplicity and ethereal quality. Buckley delivered a magnificent medley of “Not While I'm Around/Johanna/My Friends,” with “My Friends” being the most emotionally-charged song of the night.

Other highlights include a darkly moving “Hey There,” with a driving and almost ominous undercurrent, a powerfully pleading “Come Back To Me,” and a very funny original song, “A Hymn to Her” (music adapted by Eric Stern, lyrics by Eric Kornfield) parodying the leading men's songs from Fiddler on the Roof, The Music Man, Camelot and Carousel, amongst others.

Young Betty Lynn believed men would sing or at least speak to her using the words of musical lyricists like Sondheim in “Maria” and Hammerstein in “Younger Than Springtime,” and consequently had to endure years of analysis to get over that disillusion. If this show is the outcome, then those years of therapy were worth every last penny!

Buckley has terrific support from Chirstian Jacob (piano), Anthony Pinciotti (drums) and Peter Barshay (bass) who keep the music popping along.

Continues at Feinstein's at Loews Regency until October 29th.

Harold Sanditen
Cabaret Scenes
October 6, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org