Lucie Arnaz takes the stage at 54Below like a stealth weapon. She begins a measured “There’s No Business Like Showbusiness” (Irving Berlin) off stage, but by the time Arnaz reaches the mic, sparks are flying. Seamless transition to “A Lot of Livin’ to Do” (Charles Strouse/Lee Adams) elicits irrepressible bounce; palms curl and unfurl, arms extend. An shiny package of sophistication, humor, sincerity and talent, the artist is an entertainer of the first order.
Loving musicals since childhood, Arnaz performed at a theater in her garage. A box office was even constructed. She commuted to high school taking advantage of special programs. All the leads had soprano voices, relegating her to second banana roles. Today, Arnaz tells us proudly, she can sing in Shirley Jones’s key. ”Out of My Dreams” (Richard Rodgers/Oscar Hammerstein II) is performed with ardor. Appearing on mom Lucille Ball’s television show offered priceless experience.
Arnaz’s first lead was as “beat-cha-self-up, Jewish girl, Gittel Mosca” in the national touring company of Seesaw (CY Coleman/Dorothy Fields). Her first director was pre Chorus Line Michael Bennett! “Poor Everybody Else” arrives in character: “…under an exclusive contract ta meee…” she sings. Annie Oakley’s “You Can’t Get a Man with A Gun” (Irving Berlin) saunters in with a warble and hillbilly accent. Opening night at Jones Beach Theater, the young actress received a telegram from Berlin. “Don’t look at me like that!” she quips leaning out to an audience member. “It’s like a text, but you can frame it.”
The first role she created from scratch was that of lyricist Sonia Walsk opposite Robert Klein in They’re Playing Our Song, the story of its authors, Carole Bayer Sager and Marvin Hamlisch. A self-deprecating anecdote about auditioning prefaces the ebullient title song. Arnaz bubbles up and spritzes like shaken champagne. The artist praises Hamlisch’s wit and wisdom. “I’m so grateful – even though he forgot to cast me in The Goodbye Girl.” A palpably warm “I Still Believe in Love” follows. “Forty-four years later, I understand what this song is about…The best thing that happened to me in 1979 was meeting my husband, Laurence Luckinbill.”
Her family agreed to one and a half years in London so that Arnaz could accept a lead role – any lead she preferred! in The Witches of Eastwick (Dana P. Rowe/John Dempsey). “Sometimes my favorite songs are those I don’t get to sing” introduces “Who’s the Man?” Playing the devil, the actress plants her legs with stolid macho, pats her hips and swaggers, everything in fact, but grab her crotch. A wah wah trumpet vocal adds to attitude. It’s priceless.
A cute vignette about being careful not to congratulate oneself in the middle of a scene leads to “Nice Work If You Can Get It” (George and Ira Gershwin), the show in which she embarrassed herself. Lyrics emerge like molasses. Arrangement is different, deft. From Arnaz’s turn in Jerry Herman’s Mack and Mabel, we hear the heroine’s “come to Jesus song,” “Wherever He Ain’t.” Starting pissed-off a capella, as vamp builds, its lyric slaloms with the whoosh of a skin run. Not a frayed note, not an unfocused moment.
Hazel, after the television show about an interfering maid, is authored by tonight’s MD/pianist Ron Abel and directed by Arnaz. (The musical currently hovers out of town.) “He Just Happened to Me” is sung by the surprised main character. It requires an actress. “He likes the way I—” ambiguous gesture. “I like the way he—” ambiguous gesture. Arnaz inhabits the song’s confusion and unabashed pleasure. (Klea Blackhurst played Hazel.)
We close with the life-affirming “No Time At All” from Stephen Schwartz’s Pippin. Like her predecessors, Arnaz dangled above wearing elderly grandma make-up. Tonight, she sashays across the stage for want of a swing. This was a missed opportunity. We could have followed a bouncing ball on the club’s two screens and joined the chorus. It’s nonetheless buoyant.
Patter is well written, well communicated, tart. Arnaz assumes audience savvy. The artist is polished, but personable, never losing the implicit wink that lets us in on a joke. Vocals are emotionally translucent. A thoroughly appealing show.
Photos by Conor Weiss
Lucie Arnaz: I Got the Job! Songs From My Musical Past
MD/Piano- Ron Abel
THROUGH July 20, 2024
54/Below 245 West 54th Street
