at Feinstein's through April 7th
by Candace Leeds
Singer Betty Buckley is an extraordinary talent. She has the kind of powerful, expressive voice and delivery which exposes every emotional nuance of a song and can give you goose bumps or bring a tear to your eyes. In her new show at Feinstein’s, the intimate nightclub at the beautiful Regency Hotel (running through April 7), “Singin’ For My Supper,” she changes course a bit, embracing a number of upbeat tunes with cheerful messages. “Surprised by my startin’ happy?,” she asked the audience, following her opening song, Ridin’ High by Cole Porter. With her talented and jazzy quartet –piano, reeds, drums, bass – she then launched into another lively grouping of songs –Sing for Your Supper, Sing Sing, Sing, and Sing You Sinners.
For Betty Buckley, the showstoppers are always the songs which allow her dramatic, uniquely haunting style to prevail. At Feinstein’s, her rendition of James Taylor’s hit, Fire and Rain, transformed this familiar tune into a new ballad expressing deep longing and inconsolable regret. Her version of “It Might As Well Be Spring” was an especially jazzy look at the song, and she added new power and feeling to Cole Porter’s well known standards, “I Concentrate on You,” and “I’ll be Seeing You.”
Buckley explained that she has been singing before audiences since she was two years old – beginning in church. Her first appearance on Broadway was in the musical “1776,” and then on to London for Promises. She also had a starring role in the hit musical Pippin. Yet, it was not until 1982, when she introduced the song, Memories as Grizabella, the Glamour Cat, in Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Broadway hit, Cats, that she became widely known. Following Cats, for which she won a Tony, she starred in Triumph of Love, and then went on to rave reviews as Nora Desmond in the Broadway presentation of Sunset Boulevard.
Feinstein’s is a well suited space for cabaret. The stage is positioned to allow just about every table a good view of the performer – and the size and shape of the room allows for better sight lines than many of the other hotel cabarets. And the food is also several notches above the rest. By day, you would never recognize Feinstein’s. Each morning, that same room is the scene of the famed Regency Power Breakfast, where the world’s great moguls meet to discuss major business deals over bagels and coffee. And lunch is served as well. The cabaret’s name comes from singer, Michael Feinstein, of course. In 1999, he forged a partnership with the Regency to create this cabaret which has now become a New York nightlife institution.
Following Betty Buckley is comedian Jackie Mason (April 10 – 21), followed by Broadway and Soap Opera star Eileen Fulton (April 22, 23, 29, 30) and Donny Osmond in “Love Songs of the 70’s” (April 24 – 28).
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