Bebe Neuwirth: Stories With Piano #3

Always a class act, Feinstein's at Loews Regency exceeds even their own high standards this month as they present "Bebe Neuwirth: Stories With Piano #3". Armed with Scott Cady on piano and a small bottle of Veuve Clicquot Champagne to wet her whistle, Neuwirth belts out 16 classic songs that tell a story, some abstractly, some with multiple narrators, all with a character stolidly at the center.

Feinstein's upscale supper club, always a draw for the mature crowd, is an inarguably classy Park Avenue hotspot, appropriate for a classy dame such as Neuwirth. The menu at this place is artful but pricey, with even a simple vodka martini clocking in at a sticker-shocking $22. But who cares? Human needs as trivial as food or drink fade away when faced with this divine chanteuse.

Neuwirth's inimitable lispy voice doesn't have a tremendous range, but she works well with what's she's got, moving nicely from a husky, full-throated treble to a high, fine, wistful soprano. Years after her acting fame in "Cheers" and "Frasier" and a recent hip replacement, Neuwirth still looks radiant, her recent marriage apparently agreeing with her. Her fine, porcelain skin (perhaps inspiring her new CD "Porcelain") dares not betray this 52-year-old woman (she does the math for us) by revealing even the slightest wrinkle.

She starts off the evening with "As Time Goes By," the classic love song made timeless by the hit movie "Casablanca." Neuwirth then goes for laughs with the Kandar and Ebb hit "Ring Them Bells."

While she's no Liza, Neuwirth ably delivers this story-song about a woman who travels around the world in search of love, only to find Norm Saperstein, her next-door neighbor from 5 Riverside Drive. Neuwirth also shines in another hit Minnelli made famous, "Cabaret," also by Kander and Ebb.

She also takes on Leonard Bernstein in "One Hundred Ways To Lose a Man" from the hit show "Wonderful Town." Although a nitpicker will note that only five ways were catalogued, everyone can enjoy the refrain, "Just throw your knowledge in his face/ he'll never get to second base."

Neuwirth tackles arch German songwriter Kurt Weill, whom she avers is "incredibly romantic, unflinchingly truthful, and eloquent." Weill's songs are heavily nostalgic, evoking the bittersweet. Neuwirth honors him as she belts out "Bilbao Song," a reminiscence on an old-time beer hall in 1908 Bilbao, a fantastic fantasyland where one dollar would get you all you wanted and patrons enjoyed the open-air, sawdust floors, and frequent bar brawls.

The same sense of wistfulness emerges in Weill's "Susan's Dream," the story of a harried mother who, tired of living, wishes to see what her dream life could be. She dreams of a loving husband, a home, and a passel of children - exactly what she has.

The third Weill song Neuwirth sings is "Surabaya Johnny," a heart-wrenching song featuring a smooth-talking man who carries a young girl away up and down the Punjab, only to lie to her and mistreat her despite her abiding love for him.

This sense of sadness resurfaces with Neuwirth's rendition of "Mr. Bojangles," sung so slowly that it tugs at the heartstrings. Unfortunately, Neuwirth's voice seems a bit out of sync with this classic rock staple, which begs for a dirtier style. The effect is akin to the "Saturday Night Live" sketch in which Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer play married music teachers at Altadena Middle School, denuding popular songs of their pizzazz in favor of a more suburban treatment.

But Neuwirth does panic well, in her Stephen Sondheim's "Another Hundred People," a manic relay of life in a city of strangers. This piece really offers her the opportunity to show her range.

She teams it up with another Sondheim tune, "The Madam's Song," a ribald cataloguing of a prostitute who will try anything once - but only once. "Once is a lark/ twice though, loses the spark/ No matter how nice, I never do anything twice," she sings, after cataloguing numerous naughty diversions.

Neuwirth pulls another tearjerker with "It Only Happens When I Dance With You," a story about a woman who dances with dozens, but only finds a thrill with one man, singing, "Two cheeks together can be so divine, but only when those cheeks are yours and mine."

Telling some of her own stories, Neuwirth reveals that she has been performing on stage since the tender age of three, singing "Yankee Doodle Dandy" with her older brother Peter on a sea voyage in 1952, years before she began dancing at seven years old. Although her brother hogged the mike back then, she muses, now she is on stage, and he is an actuary.

She ends the evening with a few tunes by poet/songwriter Tom Waits, "Invitation to the Blues", and "Shiver Me Timbers". The first is a story of a man about to leave town, until he finds a beautiful Rita Hayworth look-alike working the lunch counter at Schwab's Drugstore, and decides to stay. The second is the story of a man's love of the sea, with the lyrics, "Joe Conrad would be proud of me/ many before me have been called by the sea." Bette Midler gave this old sea shanty legs as well.

Neuwirth treats the crowd to an encore of "I'll Be Seeing You", the perfect closer for a night of story songs. By putting aside the familiar numbers that she has performed over and over in favor of these somewhat lesser known and more emotive story songs, Neuwirth shows grace and elegance worthy of her Park Avenue surroundings.