Bebe Neuwirth makes her cabaret debut with ‘Stories With Piano’ at Feinstein’s at Loews Regency.
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By Dustin Fitzharris
Friday, May 09, 2008
Bebe Neuwirth is known as a triple threat in the entertainment industry. She can act, sing and dance. Her two Emmy Awards for her portrayal as Dr. Lilith Sternin on TV’s “Cheers” and two Tony Awards for her Broadway roles in “Sweet Charity” and “Chicago” have proven that. But she’s not satisfied with being known as triple threat. She has no shame in discussing another talent.
“I’m an excellent kisser,” Neuwirth said. “So, I’m actually a quadruple threat.”
With that confession, she can’t stop laughing. “My boyfriend can vouch for that!”
We will have to take his word for it because when Neuwirth makes her nightclub debut at Feinstein’s at the Lowes Regency Hotel from May 20-31, it’s highly unlikely the audience will get to experience that gift.
Her show, featuring pianist Scott Cady, is called “Stories With Piano.” It includes 21 songs by composers Cole Porter, Stephen Sondheim, Tom Waits, Kurt Weill and Kander & Ebb (the duo behind “Chicago”) and others. Bringing this show to the stage has been an ongoing process since 2004.
It all began when Neuwirth sang and danced in the show called “Here Lies Jenny.” Set in a seedy basement saloon, presumably in Berlin in the 1930s, the show featured songs by Weill. After the show closed, Neuwirth had an itching to pull together a show that was similar to a recital, in that it would just be her and a piano. But make no mistake; this will not be your typical cabaret show.
“I like a cabaret atmosphere, but I’m not comfortable talking about myself,” Neuwirth said. “I don’t like saying ‘Here is a song I like, and I hope you do too.’ That’s really not my style.”
Neuwirth said the reason she won’t introduce each song and tell a lot of stories about how each relates to her is because she wants to let the audience have their own personal experience with the songs.
Born on New Year’s Eve in 1958, Neuwirth grew up in Princeton, N.J. At age five she began studying dance and grew up idolizing ballet dancers Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev. Recognizing her love for ballet, her parents would take her to New York every year to see a ballet. With the city in her blood, at age 17 she left Jersey and moved to Manhattan. Five years later she made her Broadway debut in “Chorus Line.”
Interestingly, with decades of memories in New York, one of her most memorable is still when she had first moved to the Big Apple and was living uptown—the neighborhood is now inhabited by nannies pushing baby carriages, but it was once a gay playground.
“I remember the first time my friend Joseph and I were walking on the Upper West side, and I got looked at by a man and not him,” Neuwirth said. “I said, ‘Oh, my God! Did that guy just cruise me? I thought, ‘There goes the neighborhood!’”
Today, Neuwirth probably wouldn’t be surprised even if a member of the LGBT community gave her the eye. She is adored.
“There are a couple of things that have told you that you have made it in New York,” Neuwirth said. “One is you get to do a Broadway show. Another is if you get a Hirschfeld [a celebrated American caricaturist] drawn of you in the New York Times and personally, I think, if you have a significant gay following—that’s it, man. Who else do you look to for a real stamp of approval that means something?”
So now that her measures of success have been met, she’s looking forward to a new chapter later this year.
“If all goes according to plan I will be turning 50, but I’m not quite 49 and half yet,” Neuwirth said.
She said she embraces growing older and admits that one of her favorite days in her life so far was the day she turned 40. Age has brought lessons, and Neuwirth has drawn on those lessons for selecting the songs in her act.
The first half of the show is dominated by thoughts on love. She described that initially there is falling in love. Then it’s being in love, enjoying it and trying to explain it. And finally there is facing the realities of love, some of which aren’t often pleasant.
Neuwirth can speak truthfully about the subject. Her only marriage, to theater director Paul Dorman, ended in 1991 after seven years. She later became engaged to actor Michael Danek, but the couple never made it to the altar.
“I think there are so many different kinds of love,” Neuwirth said. “And there are so many different kinds of love that are associated with romantic love.”
You can be in love several times throughout your adult life with different people, she says, and although they are all a slightly different kind of love, they can all be a romantic love.
“I have had relationships where I’ve loved these fellows, but it’s been a different feeling with each one,” Neuwirth said. “Where we are in our development as a person also determines the nature and character of our love. The more mature and clearer we get as people, the more healthy and more fulfilling the love we experience is.”
With all that wisdom and psychological talk, one can’t help but wonder if it’s Neuwirth or Lilith talking. Sometimes even Neuwirth can’t tell.
“I love her and the ways I relate to her,” Neuwirth said. “We are not alike—she’s a whole lot smarter and knows much bigger words—but the way we are alike is we are both extremely honest and our honesty gets us into trouble. The good news is the same as the bad news about me, and that is I’m very honest.”
“I relate to Lilith in that she also had trouble relating to people and being around people. There’s a shyness to her that got misinterpreted as a coldness. Well, I have a shyness and awkwardness about me that often gets misinterpreted as a toughness. Ultimately my feelings get hurt and her feelings got hurt,” Neuwirth said.
But no matter how much hurt Neuwirth has been through, one of the biggest lessons she has learned is staying true to herself.
“One can’t try to be like anyone else,” Neuwirth said. She believes that you have to figure out what your particular gift is and then develop it, honor it and try to maintain integrity as much as you can—and that’s really hard, and it can be a lot more painful than it sounds.”
In a business and a city that can swallow you whole, Neuwirth’s beliefs have kept her strong. Perhaps she’ll let us in on a few more of her secrets to life when she tells stories with a piano.
Read the complete article on nyblade.com. “Bebe Neuwirth, Stories With Piano,” 8:30 p.m., May 20–31, Tues-Thur., and 8 & 10 p.m. Fri. & Sat. at Feinstein’s at Loews Regency, 540 Park Ave. @ 61st St., $65.03–$81.28, feinsteinsattheregency.com.
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