Buckley offers her take on Broadway songs for guys

Artistically speaking, it's difficult to imagine Betty Buckley not being able to do, well, pretty much anything.

She won a Tony Award for her performance as Grizabella in "Cats" - in which she sang the musical's signature tune, "Memory" - and, in January, will be enshrined in the Theater Hall of Fame in New York City.

Her stage credits include such iconic shows as "1776," "Pippin," "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" and "Sunset Boulevard," and her TV and fim resume ranges from the original 1976 "Carrie" (Buckley's first feature film) to TV's "Eight is Enough" and, now, ABC Family's "Pretty Little Liars."

As a vocalist, Buckley is a popular and well-received cabaret and nightclub singer and former Grammy nominee.

Yet, and all of that notwithstanding, there's one thing Buckley hasn't gotten to do over the course of her career: take the Broadway stage and sing a song that just happened to have been written for a male performer.

This weekend, Southern Nevadans can see Buckley remedy that appalling omission when she brings "Ah, Men! The Boys of Broadway" to The Smith Center for the Performing Arts.

Performances, in the center's Cabaret Jazz venue, will begin at 7 p.m. today through Saturday and at 3 p.m. Sunday.

Buckley will perform such Broadway standards as "My Defenses Are Down" from "Annie Get Your Gun," "Luck Be A Lady" from "Guys and Dolls," "Corner of the Sky" from "Pippin" and "Sweeney Todd Suite: Not While I'm Around/Johanna/My Friends" from "Sweeney Todd."

Last week, during a phone interview from her Texas ranch - more about that later - Buckley recalls that, while playing a male character in "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" some years ago, she began to think about such gender-crossing instances of casting as Sarah Bernhardt playing "Hamlet" and women playing boys in British music hall productions.

That, in turn, "got me thinking about the great men's roles and men's songs I love and haven't been able to sing," she says.

The result is "Ah, Men!" which Buckley premiered last year at Feinstein's at the Loews Regency in New York City before taking it on the road. (The CD for the show was released in August.)

The arrangements "are really fresh and cause you to hear the songs differently than you might have heard them before," Buckley says.

"I think it's a fresh take on things. And, for most points of view, I sing from a girl's point of view, but every now and then I attempt to play a character, as in 'Sweeney Todd.' "

In a few cases, the gender switch takes an obvious turn. "Hymn to Her" is a woman-centered twist on "Hymn to Him" from "My Fair Lady" that makes comedic references to some iconic male Broadway roles. "Jets Song," from "West Side Story," delivered in a woman's voice is sure to come to mind whenever the original is heard.

"I always wanted to be a Jet when I was young," Buckley offers with a laugh.

"Ah, Men!" is just one example of Buckley's willingness to tackle a diverse array of projects. She says her resume is the result not of any grand career plan, but simply a desire to do as much as she can.

"I've been fortunate to keep working," says Buckley, who early on realized that "you need to be as good as you could be in different things. You need to be a good actor and a good singer and be able to do all of it."

Buckley says that although she enjoys doing films and television and concerts, musical theater remains "my love." Earlier this year, she took to Twitter to defend her love, criticizing "American Idol" judge Randy Jackson for his tendency to dismiss contestants' voices he doesn't like as "too Broadway."

In a piece in The New York Times, Buckley argued that Broadway today "is a place, not a style of singing or a specific kind of musical composition."

And, she wrote, "it's important that young performers be encouraged - not discouraged - in their dreams to sing, whether on Broadway or in the pop arena, by a show that purports to celebrate great singing."

Rock and pop concerts today are "as theatrical as you can get," Buckley adds. "They have singing, lighting design, set design, choreography, costumes. They use every element we use in musical theater, and to say that it isn't musical theater or pretend that it isn't is absurd."

By the way: This tough love comes from a fan.

"I think these shows are great in terms of a platform for new singers, or even singers who have been around for a while, to give them an opportunity to be heard," Buckley says.

"There is some great singing happening on these shows, and the fact they're popular means, clearly, that we as a culture love beautiful singing."

Here, by the way, is something that makes Buckley immediately cooler than your usual Tony-winning, Grammy-nominated star: Check out her Web page and you're liable to learn almost as much about her avocation as a cutting horse rider as you will her career as a performer.

Buckley says that when she was a kid growing up in Texas, she had a few horses and rode junior rodeo. But, she continues, "I had never ridden a cutting horse, so that was my dream."

Even as a kid, "I wanted to be successful in show business so I could live on a ranch," she says. "And I just forgot to do that."

Then, after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and feeling "visionless" for the first time, Buckley decided it was time to remember.

"I found a trainer who was willing to take me on as a student and said I wasn't too old to learn," she says. A few months later, "he found me a special horse who changed my life.

"So that first year, I tried commuting back and forth from New York. But I felt the need to live where my horse lived, so I sold my apartment and moved to this little ranch."

"Unfortunately, I haven't been home much this year," Buckley admits. "I've been on the road so much, and I'm also getting ready to go to London to do a new version of 'Dear World.' "

Buckley also recently completed a New York City run of her new cabaret show, "The Other Woman: The Vixens of Broadway," which focuses on songs written for second female leads. She hopes to bring that show to Las Vegas, too.

She laughs. "As a working girl, you've got to keep working."

Contact reporter John Przybys at
jprzybys@reviewjournal.com
or 702-383-0280.