Donna McKechnie

Same Place: Another Time

54 Below, NYC, August 9, 2015

Reviewed by Joel Benjamin for Cabaret Scenes

Donna McKechnie exudes a warmth that is contagious. As she danced onto the stage at 54 Below to a disco version of “Where or When” (Rodgers & Hart), you knew you were in for a good time. Same Place: Another Time is a musical tour of McKechnie’s successes from the 1970s on. (Tony Award, anyone?!)

Her chat covered both her romantic life and her professional triumphs. The joy of love was expressed in an exuberant “What More Do I Need?” (Sondheim), and the frustrations in a sardonic “I Never Know When to Say When” (Leroy Anderson/Jean & Walter Kerr/Joan Ford). “You’re Moving Out Today” (Carole Bayer Sager/Bette Midler/Bruce Roberts), sung with a zesty bitterness, was the nail in the coffin of the affair

When doing A Chorus Line in Los Angeles, Fred Astaire took her to dinner. “Astaire” (Ann Hampton Callaway/Lindy Robbins) was the perfect number to accompany this wide-eyed tale of hero worship. Of course, she had to sing something from A Chorus Line. After telling a sweet story about Marvin Hamlisch accompanying her at her first audition, she sang a transcendentally touching “At the Ballet” (Hamlisch/Kleban).

Most recently, she was the standby for Chita Rivera in Kander & Ebb’s The Visit from which she sang “I Walk Away,” the main character’s credo of profiting from her many marriages, mining the song for all its callous humor. Also from that show, “Love and Love Alone,” performed with dancer Emily Mechler, was almost meditative in its quiet intensity.

McKechnie ended on a sweet note with Jim Croce’s “Time in a Bottle.”

Steve Marzullo was her terrific musical director, with Ray Grappone on drums and Ray Kilday on bass. They provided a witty, colorful musical accompaniment to McKechnie’s stories and songs.