Past Reviews

Regional Reviews: Florida - Southern

Bernadette Peters

Also see John's review of Dixie's Tupperware Party


Bernadette Peters
Broadway superstar Bernadette Peters recently returned to the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in a concert presented by Mercedes-Benz of Fort Lauderdale.  

A musical theater star since her debut in the late 1960s, Bernadette Peters has received Tony Awards for Song and Dance and Annie Get Your Gun as well as nominations for for her roles in Gypsy, The Goodbye Girl, Sunday in the Park With George, Mack and Mabel and On The Town. She has appeared in sixteen films, receiving a Golden Globe Award for Pennies From Heaven,  and she was nominated twice for a Golden Globe for her performances on television, with credits that include appearances this season's guest star role on "Ugly Betty."  

Miss Peters is acclaimed for her solo performances at New York's Carnegie Hall and London's Royal Festival Hall, and has recorded five solo albums, including the Grammy nominated "Bernadette Peters Loves Rodgers & Hammerstein" and "Bernadette Peters Live At Carnegie Hall."   

Backed by some thirty musicians, Miss Peters was in fine voice in this concert under the musical direction of Marvin Laird.  She sizzled on stage with such youthful energy and beauty that she defines the term "sixty and sexy."  Her memorable sex appeal was exemplified in a rendition of "Fever" in which she draped herself across the piano. She has gift of simplifying the melody and slowing down the meter to make something old and familiar seem suddenly new, which she showed on "Shenandoah."  At times this can get away from her, however, as in "Some Enchanted Evening" when she seemed to relinquish all sense of counting; it was amazing the conductor could follow her.  Her best numbers were an up-tempo "Let Me Entertain You," a passionate arrangement of "Move On," a moving "Johanna," a tearful "Not A Day Goes By" and a tender "No One Is Alone." It was a treat to see an artist of such versatility at work.  

Bernadette Peters appeared in the Au-Rene Theater at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts on Wednesday, February 11, 2009, at 8 p.m..  The Broward Center for the Performing Arts is located in the Riverwalk Arts & Entertainment District at 201 SW Fifth Avenue in Fort Lauderdale.  For tickets and/or information on the many diverse offerings of the Broward Center for the Performing Arts you may contact them at 954-462-0222 or visit www.browardcenter.org.


Photo: Tim White


See the current theatre season schedule for southern Florida.

-- John Lariviere