There are stars, and then there are legends. Rita Moreno is most decidedly one of the latter, with a career spanning 62 years and Oscar, Tony, Emmy and Grammy awards for her work in every possible medium. Already famous as a triple-threat Broadway star, she is making her Cafe Carlyle debut with the high-octane Little Tributes, a witty and utterly enjoyable cabaret that shows off her many talents in an all-too-brief hour.

The Carlyle stage isn't large, and seems wholly inadequate to contain the larger-than-life Moreno. Unlike most cabaret chanteuses, she not only sings, she dances. She climbs on top of the piano. She makes it very hard to believe that she is 75. (As she wryly comments at the beginning of the evening, Kitty Carlisle Hart must sneer at such a young age.) While she could command attention with her mere presence, she refuses to keep still, investing every fiber of her being into each song, making every moment intense, engaging, and energetic.

When Ms. Moreno belts out Strouse and Adams' "But Alive" from Applause, you believe every emotion she describes, from fear and frustration to joy and exhilaration. She ends Burke and Webster's sensual "Black Coffee" atop a piano, crouched like a panther, her eyes hungry. She dances a soft-shoe to Adler & Ross' "The Old Soft Shoe" (really, would anyone expect her to sing that song standing still? It can't be done). She sings "I Love A Piano" -- but to the melody of "The Maple Leaf Rag." The two songs fit delightfully well together, and the combined jazz sound is refreshingly inventive.

"Fever," made famous by Peggy Lee, gets a drum-heavy new interpretation, courtesy of Russell Kassoff's strong music direction, and Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin's haunting "My Ship" has never sounded lovelier. Kander and Ebb's "Class" is reimagined as a solo, and Ms. Moreno performs it with the perfect mix of dry cynicism and flawless comic timing. "Aguinaldo," a traditional Puerto Rican song, is energetic and exciting, and gives Ms. Moreno an all-too-rare chance to perform in Spanish and celebrate her heritage.

With Kassoff on piano, John Burr on bass, and Ted Sommer on drums, the evening's songs have an intimate, cozy feel, inviting the audience into each musical moment rather than overwhelming them with sound. Little Tributes is witty, charming and elegant, a lovely evening with a lovely performer who has refused to accept other people's limitations throughout her career. She can do it all, and she does it beautifully. Here's looking forward to the next twenty-five years.

Rita Moreno continues at Cafe Carlyle through February 10.

Tesse Fox
Cabaret Scenes
January 17, 2007
www.cabaretscenes.org