Broadway Downtown Series at The Duplex
by Warren Hoffman

Barbara Walsh

It's hard to say which is Barbara Walsh's stronger suit, stirring dramatic songs that reveal emotional depth or an uncanny talent for celebrity impersonations. One could find plenty of both in Walsh's cabaret act which had a one-night run last evening at the Duplex Cabaret Theater as the first entry in a new concert series entitled Broadway Downtown. Phil Geoffrey Bond has made a name for himself as a first-class cabaret booker at the Duplex, and this new series is no exception. By offering name talent at a reasonable price, this series should sell out quickly.

Currently starring in Hairspray, Barbara Walsh is no stranger to Broadway (her many credits include Falsettos, Big, and an Off-Broadway run with Forbidden Broadway), and she brings her immense talents to the intimate Duplex space. Opening with a lush and riveting rendition of the song "White Bird" (by David and Linda LaFlamme) and following it with the folksy number "The Song Remembers Well," Walsh presented a smart evening that combined some well-known pop tunes with lesser-known theater songs. Eschewing standards, Walsh's program included some choice Michael John LaChiusa numbers, including "Tom" from Hello Again, a few Beatles hits, and a couple of fresh cabaret compositions by writers Ellen Weiss, Kim Oler, and Alison Hubbard, all tidily packaged and polished under the musical direction of Mary Mitchell Campbell.

Walsh easily found the dramatic line in songs such as Jeff Blumenkrantz's "I Won't Mind" and gave a poignant reading of one of her signature songs, "Holding to the Ground" from William Finn's Falsettos. If her choice of the Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There" with its rock and roll stylings seemed a little out of place in comparison with some of the evening's other offerings, the song was enthusiastically executed by Walsh's backup quartet of piano, drums, violin, and bass.

Walsh is also a side-splittingly funny comedian and, in addition to her tongue-in-cheek patter, she has a keen knack for mimicry. She did a mean version of noted Broadway director/choreographer Graciela Daniele, and in one of the highlights of the show, impersonated Meryl Streep who, in Walsh's send-up, has been approached by Fran Weissler (who Walsh also apes) to do a musical version of Out of Africa. Her characterization of Streep was dead on, but it's when Fran Weissler decides to replace Streep with Barbra Streisand that Walsh was astonishing with a hysterical take on Babs that was downright eerie. Walsh scored as well in a literally fall-on-floor laughing number by Pat Cook entitled "Thank You, Jacques Brel," a send-up of Brel's at times morbid and wretched characters and musical oeuvre.

The show concluded with stunning versions of the Joni Mitchell tunes "Song to a Seagull" and "Both Sides Now" that showed off Walsh's powerful yet controlled vocal belt. One hopes that Walsh will bring this act back soon as it definitely deserves a longer run. If her act is a barometer for the performers to appear in coming weeks, cabaretgoers should plan to spend their Monday nights for the next seven weeks at the Duplex.

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