Lee Roy Reams: Me & Betty (AKA Lauren Bacall)

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Lee Roy Reams

Me & Betty (AKA Lauren Bacall)

54 Below, NYC, January 25, 2025

Reviewed by Jacqueline Parker

Photos by Maryann Lopinto

Lee Roy Reams

To paraphrase Sir Noël Coward, “I’ve been to a marvelous party, with Betty and Rudy and Kate.”  And to quote Bobby Short, “If you need last names, well, there’s the door.”  The host of this glorious evening was beloved Broadway actor, singer, dancer, choreographer, and director Lee Roy Reams, who can now add “raconteur extraordinaire” to his long list of credits and accomplishments.

The aforementioned guests were, of course, Lauren Bacall (known as Betty to her friends), Rudolf Nureyev, and Katharine Hepburn. These were just a few of the celebrities mentioned in this evening filled with the reminiscences of this Broadway legend. With his musical director/pianist Alex Rybeck, Reams began his show with “Star!” (Jimmy Van Heusen/Sammy Cahn), and what better way to introduce the other star of the evening, Lauren Bacall. He told stories about her (along with a few about his own life pre- and post-Betty) in such an entertaining and non-self-aggrandizing way that it really was like being at an exclusive and swank party. There was talk of Bogart, whom she married, and Sinatra, whom she almost married, as well as gossipy tidbits, such as the song that was her and Sinatra’s favorite (“Witchcraft” by Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh). Later we learned that “Here’s That Rainy Day” (Van Heusen/Johnny Burke) was her own personal favorite, and that she paid $48K for her apartment in the Dakota, which ultimately sold for millions.

Lee Roy Reams and Alex Rybeck

Photographs were projected throughout the show, depicting Bacall in various moods and ages and gorgeous in all of them. Reams and Bacall forged their friendship when they were both in Applause on Broadway. He was the first American actor to play an opening gay man in a musical, and she, of course, was the Star!

Reams was in the original cast of Hello, Dolly!; Carol Channing had asked for him to play Cornelius Hackel. He has credits too lengthy to mention here; they include Sweet Charity (film and Broadway cast), many television variety shows, and performing in cabarets. He is truly an ultimate showman of the kind we rarely see—the triple threat who can seemingly do it all. He is unique in that he tells the story of his life by highlighting others rather than himself. It was a joy to be one of the invited guests to this evening of the fondest of memories of a Broadway golden era.

Final tidbit: Reams mentioned that his cheeks had been pinched by two of the luminaries mentioned above.  Can you guess which stars, and which cheeks?

Jacqueline Parker

Like Ethel Merman, lifelong New Yorker Jacqueline Parker began her career as a stenographer. She spent more than two decades at the city's premier public agency, progressing through positions of increased responsibility after earning her BA in English from New York University (3.5 GPA/Dean’s List). She won national awards for her work in public relations and communication and had the privilege of working in the House of Commons for Stephen Ross, later Lord Ross of Newport. In the second half of her career, Jacqueline brought her innate organizational skills and creative talents to a variety of positions. While distinguishing herself in executive search, she also gave her talents to publishing, politics, writing, radio broadcasting and Delmonico's Restaurant. Most recently, she hosted Anything Goes! a radio show that paid homage to Cole Porter and by extension the world of Broadway musicals and the Great American Songbook. Other features of the show were New York living, classical music, books, restaurants, architecture and politics. This show highlighted the current Broadway scene, both in New York and around the country through performances and interviews with luminaries including Len Cariou, Charles Strouse, Laura Osnes, Steve Ross and Joan Copeland. Her pandemic project was immersion into the life, times and work of Alfred Hitchcock, about whom she has written a soon-to-be-published article. Jacqueline has been involved in a myriad of charitable causes, most notably the Walt Frazier Youth Foundation, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Sisters of Life, York Theatre, and the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival. She is a proud Founder of Hidden Water. Her greatest accomplishment is the parenting of her son, a lawyer specializing in mediation. She has many pretend grandchildren, nieces and nephews, on whom she dotes shamelessly, as well as a large circle of friends to whom she is devoted. Her interests in addition to theater and cabaret are cooking, entertaining, reading, and spending time on Queen Mary 2.

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