Celia Berk
On My Way to You: Improbable Stories That Inspired an Unlikely Path
Laurie Beechman Theatre, NYC, February 17, 2022
Reviewed by Ron Forman
Photo by Helane Blumfield
On My Way to You: Improbable Stories That Inspired an Unlikely Path is a very appropriate title for Celia Berk’s show at the Laurie Beechman Theatre; the unique way in which she performed each number made each one of them a kind of short story. Berk has a lovely sound, excellent dramatic skill, and she has the ability to perform every song in the show differently from any way I had heard it performed before. The show used loving memories of performers ranging from Al Jolson to Maria Callas to describe how each inspired Berk to be where she is now. Her music director Tedd Firth provided the perfect soft accompaniment for all of her numbers. Mark Nadler directed the show.
Walking through the audience, Berk opened with a soft, slow
very un-Jolson-like“April Showers.” She recalled how she grew up (as I
did) listening to Jolson records with her father. After telling how she saw
Ethel Merman in Annie Get Your Gun on Broadway, she amazingly did a duet
with herself of “Anything You Can Do” using the pronouns I and Me for the
feuding characters. After talking about the transition of Barbara Cook from
beautiful young ingénue to veteran cabaret star, Berk performed two songs from Anyone
Can Whistle:the title song and then a very controlled “See What It
Gets You,” a song about change. A beautiful, very soft performance of the title
song “On My Way to You” led into Berk’s recalling Barbra Streisand’s battles
with stage fright. That segment closed with a loud performance of Charles
Trenet’s “Boom” (English lyric by E. Ray Goetz) a song about sudden change.
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Surprisingly, she told us that the greatest live performance she had
experienced was by Nancy Walker. She then performed the song Walker introduced,
“I’m the First Girl (in the Third Scene in the Fourth Number)” from the musical
Look Ma, I’m Dancing!. Recalling the trials and tribulations of Maria
Callas’ life gave Berk the opportunity to display her operatic soprano with “Di
rigori armoto.” (Richard Strauss) from Der Rosenkavalier.
She did a wonderfully very, very, slow, version of “The Best Is Yet to Come,” ending by holding a very high note. A medley of two rock numbers “Electricity” (Lee Hall/Elton John) and “Overjoyed” (Stevie Wonder) preceded her lilting closing number, “I Could Have Danced All Night.”
