Donna McKechnie
A Musical Memoir
The Laurie Beechman Theatre, NYC, May 23, 2026
Reviewed by Jacqueline Parker
Photo by Stephen Sorokoff
The air conditioning stopped, as did the loud music, and through the darkened blue room like a thunderbolt came the sound of Donna McKechnie singing “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” (Jule Styne/Stephen Sondheim). She entered to the stage to the warm welcoming applause of the star-studded audience that included Lee Roy Reams, Baayork Lee, Jeff Harnar, and Lorna Luft. Thus began a show even more exciting than her last.
McKechnie told her life story through songs that were mostly from shows she’s appeared in. They were skillfully selected to complement the different eras in her life. She came to New York when she was 17, and the fervor with which she rendered “A Lot of Livin’ to Do” (Charles Strouse/Lee Adams) conveyed the excitement of that milestone. She delivered much more than that song, however.
Even though decades have passed since she experienced that tingling rush of anticipation that so many of us felt when we first arrived in this magical city, she exuded that feeling so palpably that it was breathtaking. Perhaps you remember that emotion—it’s almost like falling in love. While recalling that thrill is not difficult, feeling it again is, as Cole Porter put it, “past all endeavor.” Therein is the magic of Donna McKechnie: I felt that rush of joyous possibility again that evening, complete with tingles up the spine and the urge to giggle that I thought had been forsaken with my youth.
Pause for a moment and consider that Donna arrived at the time when on Broadway there was a gal singing one of the greatest songs of empowerment that inspired many young women—Funny Girl’s Barbra Streisand doing “Don’t Rain on My Parade” (Jule Styne/Bob Merrill). Within a decade, McKechnie would be inspiring others with her number in her breakout role of Cassie in A Chorus Line, “The Music and the Mirror” (Marvin Hamlisch/Ed Kleban), for which she won a Tony Award. Her character lived through what was just mentioned, and was now on the other side, struggling to keep her dreams alive when everything seemed to work against her. The difference in these two characters is that Cassie is so unmistakably vulnerable, which is a trait that Donna uses to her advantage, making her all the more endearing to an audience. At times it is reminiscent of Mary Tyler Moore and even Marilyn Monroe.
She told charming stories, such as getting a tooth chipped when Dean Jones gave her a first kiss in Company. One touching bit was her description of a visit from Fred Astaire that used “Astaire” (Ann Hampton Callaway and Lindy Robbins) to help tell her tale. Her storytelling talent is such that one could see the two of them gliding across the polished floor together. The story seemed improbable if not impossible, yet one wanted so to think it was true if only for McKechnie’s sake.
Her rendition of “Lucky to Be Me” (Leonard Bernstein/Betty Comden and Adolph Green) was so convincing that one was almost envious. Her movements throughout belied her age; she is still Cassie from A Chorus Line, the eternal ingenue.
After having told us where she had been, she sang a dramatic version of “Where Am I Going?” (Cy Coleman/Dorothy Fields) imbued with pathos. Her loyal musicians—Ian Herman on piano, Ray Kilday on bass, and Ray Marchica on drums—helped her create this magical evening.
McKechnie has worked with the greats of Broadway and beyond, too numerous to mention, and she stands out as truly one of them; she was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 2019. This show was billed as her celebration of the “transformative power of musical theater,” and the stories she told were concrete evidence of that belief. This show was a bit of an emotional roller-coaster ride, particularly the encore of “The Music and the Mirror,” which was still fresh and powerful enough to take one back to the Shubert Theatre circa 1975.
This show was a ride well worth taking, and she’s back at The Laurie Beechman on June 11. Don’t miss her; Donna McKechnie is now, as she has always been, “One Singular Sensation!”
