January 21, 2014
Megan Mullally at the Parker Playhouse
Jack Gardner READ TIME: 2 MIN.
On Jan. 16, Fort Lauderdale audiences were treated to the first of the 2014 WinterStage concert series at the Parker Playhouse. The evening's guest artist was Broadway and television actress Megan Mullally in concert with Seth Rudetsky as pianist and host.
Mullally is best known for her portrayal of Karen Walker in the hit television series "Will & Grace," but she is also a veteran of Broadway musical comedy having appeared in the 1994 Broadway Revival of "Grease," the 1995 revival of "How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying," and again in 2007 in the original musical "Young Frankenstein."
During the course of the evening Mullally proved that she is a more than capable singer with a voice that is big and powerful. It is reminiscent at times of Bernadette Peters but with the husky tones of late Broadway legend Georgia Brown.
The program opened with Stephen Sondheim's classic "Broadway Baby." Mullally followed this up with the rarely heard "Look What Happened To Mable" from the rarely seen musical "Mack and Mable."
She sang the Elaine Stritch arrangement of the Rodgers & Hart classic "You Took Advantage of Me" and then treated the audience to two more numbers from Sondheim's "Follies": "Could I Leave You" and "Losing My Mind."
She was then joined on stage by Stephanie Hunt, her partner in the band Nancy & Beth. Together they performed three blues-oriented numbers, "Please, Mr. Jailer," "One Mint Julep" and "Waiting for My Child To Come."
At the close of the show, Mullally performed a song from an unproduced musical based on her famous "Will & Grace" character. "I've Got A Lot to Say" was written for Mullally and shows off her voice to great advantage. For an encore she performed a version of "Dentist Chair Blues" that was raunchy and fun and had the audience yelling for more.
Mullally was assisted by pianist Seth Rudetsky who also acted as host for the evening. Rudetsky is the host of the SIRIUS radio shows "On Broadway" and "Seth Speaks." Between each number, he and Mullally would adjourn to a sitting area on stage left and chat about her career and famous people with whom she's worked. The interview sections of the evening were interesting, but paled in comparison to the performance sections.
Upcoming concerts in the WinterStage series will include Megan Hilty on Feb. 20 and Patti LuPone on Mar. 13, both accompanied by Rudetsky.
Jack Gardner has been producing theater in Dallas and Fort Lauderdale for the past 8 years. He has performed in operas, musicals and dramatic works as well as doing voice-over and radio work. Jack lives in South Florida with his three dogs.
