Loose Lips

SONGS OF BERNADETTE

In a world where directors’ cuts of films and multi-box CD sets are the norm, it’s no wonder that Angel Records has decided to release Bernadette Peters: Sondheim, Etc., Etc., a 12-track disc of songs from the star’s famed Carnegie Hall concert that were omitted from her previous Sondheim, Etc. album.

“I really wanted the rest of the material out there,” Peters told me at a CD launch party at Ruth’s Chris on July 26. (The album’s official release is on August 2.) “I wanted to capture every moment of that special evening, which is why we’ve included the overture and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. There was so much love in that room that night, especially since we were all there for GMHC (Gay Men’s Health Crisis). It was amazing.”

Were there any songs on the album that Peters especially wanted released? “I love ‘WIth So Little to Be Sure Of ‘ and ‘Children Will Listen,’ ” she said, referring to the disc’s two Sondheim cuts. Indeed, she chose to sing those classic tunes at the party — as it turned out, in the presence of the composer himself, who was a surprise guest. “And when I’m out on the road doing my concerts,” Peters continued, “people always ask me about that version of ‘Unexpected Song,’ since my only other recording of that is on the original Song and Dance CD.”

If you want to catch Peters live — though not necessarily singing — your next chance is Saturday, July 30, when she will co-host Broadway Barks 7 in Shubert Alley. The annual pet adopt-a-thon that is the Tony-winning star’s pet cause; she will be joined by her good pal and co-host Mary Tyler Moore, plus more than two dozen of Broadway’s brightest stars including Billy Crudup, Victoria Clark, Cheyenne Jackson, and David Hyde Pierce.

There will be some other, special Broadway stars on hand as well. “We’re going to have the dogs from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Annie, and my beloved Coco from Gypsy,” Peters tells me. “They’ll be there to show you that some dogs are smart enough to go into show business and make money! I want to remind people that when they’re thinking about donating money to charities during the year, they should think about all the animal shelters across the country.”

After a brief break in August, including a vacation with her husband Michael, Peters will resume her national concert tour in September (it will hit New York’s Avery Fisher Hall next May) and will begin recording a new album in November. “We started these concerts last January in Florida,” she says. “They have a little bit of everything, including some great stuff from Gypsy. It took some time to get the running order down but, by the ninth city, I finally felt that I had gotten it right.”

HOMEWARD BOUND
Two of Houston’s most notable success stories, actresses Phylicia Rashad and Chandra Wilson, will be feted by their hometown’s Ensemble Theatre at the company’s annual black-tie gala on August 13. Rashad, who’ll receive a Lifetime Achievement Award, won a Tony for her work in A Raisin in the Sun and appeared last season in Gem of the Ocean; Wilson, who’s to be honored with the theater’s Rising Star Award, may be seen on the hit TV series Gray’s Anatomy and co-starred in the Broadway and Off-Broadway productions of Caroline, or Change. Congratulations to both deserving ladies.

CAN YOU FEEL THE LOVE TONIGHT?
Darlene Love is blonde and beautiful, but not big — and that was a big reason why she didn’t get the first shot at playing record shop owner Motormouth Maybelle in Hairspray, the role that she recently took over from Mary Bond Davis. “When my pal Marc Shaiman was first writing the show, I talked to him about doing it,” she says, “and he told me I wasn’t fat enough. So now, even though I’m 140 pounds, I put on this fat suit every night that makes me look about 180. It’s like wearing a giant girdle, the way it presses down on my diaphragm. But at least I don’t have to wear Bruce Vilanch‘s boobs; they weigh about five pounds each.”

For all the laughs in Hairspray, no moment in the show has more dramatic resonance than “I Know Where I’ve Been,” Maybelle’s searing second-act ballad about the civil rights movement. “When I first heard the song, I asked Marc if he had sat down and written my life,” Love relates. “I’ve been telling the cast that I really lived this song. I was on Shindig in the 1960s, when they didn’t want Negroes on TV; had it not been for Jack Goode, who was the producer, I wouldn’t have been. And, just as my son in [Hairspray] dates a white girl, I had an interracial relationship [with Righteous Brother Bill Medley]. Sometimes, I get too emotional when I’m singing this song. I’ve had to learn to be really tender at the beginning, because I’m explaining these things to Tracy and the kids — but, by the end, I am preaching to them.”

It’s been many years since Love has done the eight-shows-a-week grind on Broadway; her last stint on the Great White Way was as Teen Angel in Grease!. But she’s keeping her energy up despite a daily commute from her home in Rockland County. And, fear not, Love will do her annual Christmas show (on December 17 at the Apollo) and will make her annual holiday time appearance on The David Letterman Show. “Dave is just down the street from Hairspray,” she notes, “and I am trying to get him to come see the show. He saw me in Leader in the Pack at the Bottom Line 20 years ago; that’s how this tradition got started. No matter where I go, people tell me they watch for me every year. So, as long as we’re both healthy, I’ll be doing it.”

MALE CALL
Choreographer/performer Ken Roberson will present his solo show Middle Aged Passage Crises at Joe’s Pub on July 31….Shonn Wiley will replace Doug Kreeger in the York’s Theater production of Thrill Me as of August 1….Australian performer Stewart D’Arrietta will star in Belly of a Drunken Piano, based on the music of Tom Waits, beginning August 17 at the Soho Playhouse….Former Bare star John Hill will give an encore performance of his well-received cabaret show Whiskers on Kittens at The Encore on August 22.

Looking ahead to next month: Stephen Bogardus and Brian d’Arcy James will headline Craig Wright‘s new play The Pavilion at Rattlestick starting September 9…. Taye Diggs, Anthony Mackie, James McDaniel, Teagle F. Bougere, and Steven Pasquale will co-star in the Second Stage production of A Soldier’s Play, beginning September 20….and the legendary Hal Holbrook will join his equally legendary wife Dixie Carter in Ken Ludwig‘s new play Be My Baby at Houston’s Alley Theater starting September 30.