Song of Bernadette

As you will already be aware, dear reader, Madam Arcati and I are avid arch-Sondheimites, and we whoop with joy at any opportunity to see his musical numbers sung by a stage legend. Just last November we went to see the one-night-only "An Evening With..." "Broadway Royalty" Mandy Patinkin, the originator of the part of "George" in Sondheim's Sunday In the Park With George - and this Monday we were privileged to get tickets for a similar format show starring his co-star, the original "Dot/Marie", Miss Bernadette Peters!

This may have been our third theatrical experience in a fortnight [starting with Hello Dolly!], and our second in one weekend - but what a sublime evening it was...

From Musical Theatre Review:

For her fans, this was a near-religious experience. The pre-show lobby was filled with feverish excitement and once the performance began inside the auditorium, volume levels assumed a binary deafening applause or silent awe. However, with the sense of humour and charm that has made her a star, Peters punctured any potential pretentiousness and delivered a stunning show that demands to be remembered.

She is a remarkable talent indeed - even at 76 years old, she looked amazing in her glitzy gown and trademark curly red hair.

Her show wasn't all Sondheim, of course - her brilliant transformation of the usually testosterone-heavy There Is Nothing Like a Dame from Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific into a solo "seductress" number was a stroke of genius, and when she reclined over the grand piano to sing Peggy Lee's Fever, she gave Michelle Pfeiffer a run for her money!

Giving a nod to Imelda Staunton up the road, she also did cracking renditions of Jerry Herman's Before the Parade Passes By and So Long Dearie.

It was to "The Maestro", however - to whom she owes so much - that she mainly paid tribute. Despite the occasional wobble and crack in her voice, she nonetheless gave his big numbers such as Losing My Mind, Children Will Listen, Send In the Clowns, No One Is Alone and - in a standout performance that nearly brought the house down with applause - Being Alive the full-on performance they deserve.

Bernadette Peters - Being Alive

Perhaps the most memorable number of the lot, though, was when none other than Bonnie Langford and fellow West End trouper Joanna Riding [with whom Miss Peters had recently starred in the Sondheim revue Old Friends] joined her for a briliant rendition of You Gotta Get a Gimmick. We roared!

What an evening! What show! I doubt we'll ever see the like of Bernadette Peters again...