Lee Roy Reams
Me and Betty (AKA Lauren Bacall)
Coachella Valley Repertory Theatre, Cathedral City, CA, July 29, 2025
Reviewed by Joel Vig
In the heart of little old New York in a basement performance space on West 54th Street, there is a business called 54 Below. In the world of cabaret, 54 Below holds a special place. Located in the Broadway Theater District directly underneath a Broadway theater run by the Roundabout organization, this intimate 150-seat room has showcased every showbiz generation from old pros (such as Marilyn Maye, 97 years young) to the youngsters in the choruses of Broadway shows (some of whom have not graduated from high school) who are putting together their first cabaret show.
Some months ago, Lee Roy Reams tried out his new cabaret show, Me and Betty (AKA Lauren Bacall) before a sold-out crowd at 54 Below. Both Lee Roy Reams (a Tony-nominated Broadway veteran) and the late Lauren Bacall (multiple Tony Award-winning legend) are beloved by the Broadway community. The show got rave reviews and was brought back for another sold-out performance at the club. Me and Betty (AKA Lauren Bacall) was again a hit.
For Reams, the question was “Does this show have legs?” This is an old show-business expression relating to a show’s commercial viability. Is the show’s narrative compelling, and is the storytelling engaging enough to reach a wide audience outside of New York? Reams decided to find out by accepting an offer to fly 3,000 miles to the California desert in July to try out the show in a 200-seat regional theater in Coachella Valley Repertory Theatre in Cathedral City, CA.
I have known and worked with Reams for over 40 years. We met when we worked on the Theatre Guild’s project called Theatre at Sea, which was the trailblazing endeavor that created the template for all the current Broadway style cruise entertainment that exists today. Reams was both a director for and performer in the shows on the ships and in prestigious locations in various port cities. I remember him teaching Gena Rowlands a Hawaiian hula routine while she sang “Ukelele Lady.” Reams and I worked together to put on a gala event for Patricia Neal when she was honored with a long overdue star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame before we all sailed off later that same day to Alaska. I watched as he choreographed and performed as one of the “3 Boys 3” backup dancers along with Ron Cohn and Jack Wrangler (yes, that Jack Wrangler!) as they put together a song-and-dance number to bring on headliner Sinthea Starr for the All-Star Spectacular in the Amazon Theatre, the opera house in the Amazon rain forest in Manaus, Brazil.
In the world of cabaret, CV Rep is a heartwarming success story. At a time post Covid when cabaret clubs and small theater venues have been disappearing, CV Rep’s Summer Cabaret Series has expanded and developed a loyal following of patrons from Palm Springs to Indio and beyond who brave triple-digit temperatures in June and July to enjoy world-class singers, dancers, and variety artists in the air-conditioned comfort of this plush former IMAX movie theater.
From the moment that Reams entered from upstage left and crossed down to stage center, the audience knew that they were being entertained by a master. The opening song “Star” (from the movie by the same name) was written by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen. The lyrics were written about Broadway star Gertrude Lawrence, but they set the mood for the show perfectly and every lyric aptly applied to Lauren Bacall. The New York Times has called Lee Roy Reams “Broadway’s song-and-dance man nonpareil.” His singing and dancing in Sweet Charity; Hello, Dolly!; The Producers; and his Tony nominated performance in 42nd Street were exemplary, but I have always thought that his greatest gift was as a storyteller. If anyone living person has been an eyewitness to Broadway’s golden age it is Lee Roy Reams. The stories and songs he wove together about his lifelong friend, Betty Joan Perske (AKA Lauren Bacall) were memorable, moving, and mesmerizing. He candidly stated that Bacall was not a great singer, not a great dancer, and not even a great actress; but he was quick to point out that Bacall was truly and undeniably a great star.
Backed by the masterful Alex Rybeck on the grand piano, Reams wove his stories and songs together while a beautiful collection of personal photos were projected of a screen above the stage, which captured both Reams and Bacall from over nearly half a century. Rybeck did much more than just play the songs; his underscoring set the mood, suggested the passage of time, and even helped to cue Reams as he transitioned from songs and stories. It was fun to hear songs from the rarely revived Applause, including “She’s No Longer a Gypsy” and the title tune, sung in the show by Bonnie Franklin, but which was sung on the Tonight Show by Lee Roy Reams. The story that Reams shared about how that happened was priceless.
The show was filled with smiles and laughter, but its real heart was Reams’ poignant portrait of Bacall that was quite unlike the public persona that Lauren Bacall projected. Widowed by the death of her first husband Humphrey Bogart, jilted by Frank Sinatra, married to and divorced from Jason Robards, and having raised three children by two husbands as a single parent, Bacall hid her fears and insecurities behind a tough exterior. Reams illuminated the real woman he knew and adored for more than five decades. As he told the story of their final goodbye, there was not a dry eye in the house.
When Reams asked me after the performance whether the show had legs, I told him that it could play everywhere. It would certainly help to know who Ethel Merman was, what songs Adolph Green and Betty Comden had written, and that Ann Miller had been a dancer, but knowing these things was not necessary to enjoy this show. Any audience that understands the power of friendship will do what the CV Rep audience did at the end of the show—stand up and cheer.
