Ebersole’s Broadway tribute sensitive, simple, respectful

The 55-year-old Christine Ebersole is a relatively recent major Great White Way "name" (with her Tony-winning performances in the revival of "42nd Street" and last season's "Grey Gardens"), but she spent much of her Saturday night concert paying tribute to the Broadway of yesterday. And she did it in the best kind of way -- with sensitive lyric readings and simple, respectful re-creations of melody lines.

The New York Stage & Beyond program, backed by three onstage musicians, wasted little time on chit-chat, allowing the music to carry the evening.

The songlist may sound old-hat -- with the likes of "Surrey with the Fringe on Top" (from "Oklahoma!"), "They Say It's Wonderful" (from "Annie Get Your Gun"), "My Favorite Things" (from "The Sound of Music") -- but Ebersole's renditions were always fresh and surprising. She lacks the power of a Betty Buckley or Patti Lupone, but she has a reliable belt and an inviting soft side. Her heartfelt and playful interpretations reminded us of why these numbers became classics in the first place.

As expected, she saved medleys from her Tony-winning shows for last, demonstrating the special quality she brought to those New York productions.

Curious, though, that she so often was paired vocally with pop-jazz pianist Billy Stritch. Stritch has a solid, though limited, vocal instrument, but his playing style is 1970s Vegas lounge. He always sounds as if he's selling something. Ebersole is more of a straight arrow, naked, honest, and unadorned. The two are a mismatch.

Anthony Del Valle can be reached at DelValle@aol.com. You can write him c/o Las Vegas Review-Journal, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.