Penny Fuller and Anita Gillette: Sin Twisters: The Next Frontier

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Penny Fuller and Anita Gillette

Sin Twisters: The Next Frontier

Birdland, NYC, April 17, 2023

Reviewed by Bart Greenberg

Anita Gillette & Penny Fuller
Photo: Kevin Alvey

To call Penny Fuller and Anita Gillette Broadway veterans would overlook that they are still energetically performing. To call them legends would seem to embalm these very-much-alive presenters. As they proved in their new show, Sin Twisters: The Next Frontier, they are vital, engaged, and engaging stars who know how to hold the stage. They celebrated their individual and combined careers, told delightful stories of their encounters with almost a century’s worth of theatrical names (Irving Berlin, Gower Champion, Hal Prince, Harold Arlen, Richard Gere, and more), sang a wide sampling of numbers from Broadway’s golden age, both as solos and as duets, and cast a magic spell over the adoring audience.

Although the two performers showed some confusion with their scripted patter (their ad libs were hysterical), give them a beautiful song such as “Once Upon a Time” or “Time Heals Everything” and they offered perfection. Providing strong support at the piano was music director Paul Greenwood as accompanist, arranger, occasional vocalist (for a nifty Pal Joey medley, he played the title role for several selections), and most importantly, as a warm and unflappable prompter who gave the ladies hints as to where they were going next. Bassist Tom Hubbard also provided his usual fine support throughout, and their director Barry Kleinbort, who was in the audience to remind them of their staging, received plaudits from them. They also delivered a lovely version of his composition “One More Spring.”

They each had tasty show-biz stories to share. Fuller’s tale of repeatedly auditioning for the title role in Mack and Mabel revealed a nastier side of Broadway, and Gillette’s tale of her reaction to tangoing with Richard Gere was deliciously sexy. They brought the show to a close with a medley of selections from Cabaret—both of them had spent time as Sally Bowles—thath was filled with joy and theatrical know-how. Greenwood joined in on a deliciously salacious “Two Ladies.” The encore was the apt “Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries”; it confirmed the life-affirming positivity that both of these fabulous stars projected.

Bart Greenberg

Bart Greenberg first discovered cabaret a few weeks after arriving in New York City by seeing Julie Wilson and William Roy performing Stephen Sondheim and Cole Porter outdoors at Rockefeller Center. It was instant love for both Ms. Wilson and the art form. Some years later, he was given the opportunity to create his own series of cabaret shows while working at Tower Records. "Any Wednesday" was born, a weekly half-hour performance by a singer promoting a new CD release. Ann Hampton Callaway launched the series. When Tower shut down, Bart was lucky to move the program across the street to Barnes & Nobel, where it thrived under the generous support of the company. The series received both The MAC Board of Directors Award and The Bistro Award. Some of the performers who took part in "Any Wednesday" include Barbara Fasano and Eric Comstock, Tony Desare, Andrea Marcovicci, Carole Bufford, the Karens, Akers, Mason and Oberlin, and Julie Wilson. Privately, Greenberg is happily married to writer/photographer Mark Wallis, who as a performance artist in his native England gathered a major following as "I Am Cereal Killer."