cabaret review BETTY BUCKLEY, NJPAC, November 10

Betty Buckley performed her "Ah Men, the Boys of Broadway" cabaret show at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center's Chase Room this past Saturday.  This concert as I mentioned in my review of the one she gave at the McCarter theatre a few weeks back (reviewed here) contains various musical theatre songs that were all sung by men in the shows the songs come from.

While the show was almost identical to the one she did at the McCarter there was one addition to the evening that stood out.  That was the inclusion of a song that Betty sang in her latest cabaret show she introduced at Feinstein's at the Regency this past October, "The Other Woman, The Vixens of Broadway."  Her new show celebrates songs performed by the second female leads in musicals and the song she sang from this show in her concert at NJPAC was "Another Suitcase in Another Hall" from Evita.  With another beautiful arrangement by musical director/pianist Christian Jacob, Betty delivered a stirring and touching solo take on this song that is performed in Evita by a woman accompanied by two men.   This solo version was extremely effective with Betty completely getting across the ache and pain in the lyrics while also delivering an emotional and yet complete understanding that the affair the women just had who is singing the song is over and it is time for her to move on.  I'm hoping that Betty is able to record this song as well as the other songs from her new show on a forthcoming cd.

Betty is touring her "Ah Men" show around the country, so check out her website for information on upcoming performance dates.

Betty's Official Site 

Betty talks about her "Ah Men" show last year when she premiered it at Feinstein's at the Regency in New York: