Gerilyn Sohn
Timeless: A Tribute to Bernadette Peters
Don’t Tell Mama, NYC, May 2, 2026
Reviewed by Bart Greenberg
Photo by Matt Baker
Gerilyn Sohn brought her lovely soprano voice to Don’t Tell Mama to pay tribute to the Broadway icon Bernadette Peters. Vocally, the two performers are a good match, and certainly Peters’ decades-long repertory of musical standards offered a wide range of styles and genres to be explored. Sohn indeed took advantage of this song list to offer a mix of Broadway standards and pop songs. What the evening lacked was a sense of energy and a personal touch.
Sohn was backed by tge A-list team of director Lennie Watts and music director/pianist Tracy Stark (along with bassist Marco Panascia), there were excellent musical moments, from the expected “Unexpected Song” (Andrew Lloyd Webber/Don Black) to the touching “Raining in My Heart” (George Haimsohn & Robin Miller/Jim Wise). There was a well-crafted medley of numbers Peters had sung on television. These included the lovely “Blame It on My Youth” (Oscar Levant/Edward Heyman), the bawdy “Making Love Alone” (Cheryl Hardwick/Marilyn Miller), and the ebullient “I’m Flying” (Carolyn Leigh/Moose Charlap).
The problem with the show presented itself as it went on. It wasn’t until the eighth number that Sohn shared with us the personal reasons for doing this show. The best tribute shows focus on the connection between performer and the one receiving the tribute. Here, we heard one charming story about some time Sohn spent with Peters and an amusing kicker to the tale. Other than that, most of Sohn’s patter was straightforward biography which drained passion from the evening.
Passion did appear late in the show with two Stephen Sondheim songs. “Last Midnight” and “Move On” brought out an emotional commitment and a dramatic arc largely lacking from the show. Sohn dropped any connection to Peters here and created some very vivid characters of her own for a major impact. The evening could have used more of this or more about Peters’ effect on her life—or both. As it was, the show was pleasant, but only sporadically did it reach beyond that.
