“I’m going to tell you about a friend,” she said. “Stephen Sondheim, Stephen Sondheim, Stephen Sondheim, Stephen Sondheim.” There is a fierce bond between Elaine Stritch and Stephen Sondheim, and if she wants to sing his songs again this month, why not?  Over the hour, we also learn about Elaine Stritch, Elaine Stritch, Elaine Stritch, Elaine Stritch and her determination, perfection and sensitivity.

Before a star-packed opening night audience, with mock coquettishness, she began "I Feel Pretty" (Leonard Bernstein’s music for West Side Story).  A helluva actress, Stritch inserted a strong streak of sarcasm, acknowledging the fact that while she is no young beauty anymore, she can put across a song with plenty of spark.  She followed this with a stunning rendition of “Rose’s Turn” (music by Jule Styne for Gypsy), here sung “cabaret style,” but including all the obsessive drama of a theater classic. Before singing "Send in the Clowns," with its ironic look at life, Stritch included a story of her late husband, actor John Bay.  After he had written a solo play, they saw A Little Night Music with "Send in the Clowns," Sondheim’s only big hit song.  Bay asked for, and gained permission from, Sondheim to include a send-up, Groucho-style.  She later proved to Sondheim that she was the “Broadway Baby” and should sing it in the concert version of Follies.

Numerous problems with lyrics were forgiven.  Stritch has an unpredictable and ironic sense of humor that reaches out, drawing listeners to her side. She proved this so distinctly in Company’s “The Ladies Who Lunch” and “The Little Things You Do Together.” With Musical Director/pianist Rob Bowman ready to prompt, Stritch suffered through moments of forgetting a word or line, yet she never lost the intent of her complex Sondheim selections. At one point, she vowed that she would get the songs down firmly, and no doubt that she will with her tough Stritch spirit and gritty determination. On the other hand, her vulnerability is equally palpable.

Her phrasing, pauses and shifts from speech to song and back again defined her astute understanding of her selections, like the recitation of “Every Day a Little Death” and “Thank You So Much,” (Richard Rodgers’s music) that shone with love and energy.  The finale was the icing on this particular cake, “The Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me” from Road Show (Bounce), the lovely melody touching the heart even as lyrics shifted between the characters and finally ended with a tangy twist of Stritch irony.

Elaine Stritch continues at the Café Carlyle through October 8.

Elizabeth Ahlfors
Cabaret Scenes
September 13, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org