Richard Skipper
Richard Skipper Celebrates
Revolution Stage Company, Palm Springs, CA, February 11, 2026
Reviewed by Joel Vig
“There’s no business like show business like no business I know.” That classic Irving Berlin lyric is as true today as when it was first sung on Broadway in Annie Get Your Gun back in 1946. No two people I can think of know the highs and lows of show business more than Richard Skipper and his special guest star Barbara Minkus.
At 7:30 pm on February 11, 2026 (which was Skipper’s 65th birthday) an enthusiastic crowd assembled to enjoy his new show. It was part cabaret performance, part-talk show, and part birthday party, and it he told stories and performed songs that sprang from questions from the audience. The question cards were handed out by Skipper’s husband as the house manager let the audience into the theater.
Not surprisingly, many questions were about Skipper’s longtime connection to Carol Channing. For several years, he toured the country as one of the most recognized Channing impersonators. His stories about how he first met Channing and how they eventually became lifelong friends were both humorous and heartwarming. Skipper was much more than a fan; he became a champion for both Channing and her greatest role in her long career, Dolly Gallagher Levi in the Broadway smash hit Hello, Dolly! His first appearances at the Revolution Stage Company a couple of years back were focused on that Jerry Herman musical based on Thornton Wilder’s play The Matchmaker. Many consider Skipper to be the foremost expert on that musical. He is currently completing a book about the many productions of Dolly! and the performers who had played Dolly over the years.
Skipper read questions from the audience aloud and then cleverly segued into stories and songs. When asked about moving to New York City, he told us how he had pledged to his family that he would move to New York and sang “My Personal Property” (Cy Coleman/Dorothy Fields from Sweet Charity) and “Broadway Baby” (Stephen Sondheim from Follies). When it came time to introduce his guest star, Skipper answered a question about what inspired his interest in show business. He talked about watching all the various variety shows, and said “Let me show you one of those shows now,” and played a clip from the 1966 Danny Kaye Show in which Kaye introduced a bright new talent named Barbara Minkus. In the clip she sang a heartfelt version of “Once Upon a Time” (Lee Adams/Charles Strouse).
As the clip faded to black, Skipper announced, “Please welcome that bright young talent, Barbara Minkus,” who entered from the audience and sat in a director’s chair opposite him for a chat. The sprightly Minkus told stories about her inspiration to become a performer and mentioned the iconic Judy Garland. (Minkus was part of the original Broadway production of Funny Girl as the standby for Mimi Hines, who took over the role of Fanny Brice from Barbra Streisand, but she didn’t talk about that. Perhaps she is saving these stories for her own show, which hopefully will play Palm Springs later this year.) Minkus and Skipper sang “Who Will Buy?” (Lionel Bart), the lovely duet from Oliver before she returned to her seat in the second row to enjoy the rest of the show.
Skipper read several more questions and then sang a number of popular songs that included “Moon River” (Johnny Mercer/Henry Mancini) and “I Believe” (Ervin Drake/Irvin Graham/Jimmy Shirl/Al Stillman). The audience’s reaction was boisterous. Clearly many of Skipper’s friends were in attendance, including Alix Korey and Joyce Bulifant, who called out things to Skipper as he spun his tales. For his finale, he sang “It’s Not Where You Start, It’s Where You Finish” (Coleman/Fields from Seesaw), but when the audience called for an encore he sang “Bye Bye Baby” (Leo Robin/Jule Styne).
Before leaving the stage, Skipper mentioned that given this year’s brutal New York winter weather, he and his husband Danny were seriously considering moving out to Palm Springs. If that happens, I hope that a clever producer would hire Skipper to create a Palm Springs talk show that could celebrate the amazing talent pool that the desert cities enjoy. Just as Rosie O’Donnell had done, Richard Skipper could celebrate so many people, and everyone would win.
