Papp Cheer

When the history of theater in the 20th-century is written, the name Joseph Papp will appear prominently in its pages. Papp founded what is now known as The Public Theater in 1954 and his legacy continues to be felt more than 50 years later.

There will be many celebrations of Papp’s achievements during the coming months, culminating in a star-studded concert on January 30, 2006. Right now, the fabulous dancer-singer-actress Donna McKechnie is kicking off (and we do mean “kicking” off) the tribute with her spectacular new cabaret act, Here’s to the Public at Joe’s Pub. It’s only scheduled to be there for the next three Mondays, but we hope it will play throughout this special year and beyond.

McKechnie had a fine career as a Broadway dancer in the 1960s and early 1970s (Promises, Promises, Company) before it went into overdrive when she won a Tony Award for A Chorus Line, developed and produced by the Public. The show served as a cash cow that helped keep that venerable institution in the black and gained McKechnie a loyal following.

She begins her new show with the perfect song for the occasion: William Finn’s “Joe Papp” (from Elegies), which makes the point that “Joe Papp never took crap” and goes so far as to equate the man with God. She follows that up with a quartet of songs from Hair before moving on to numbers from Two Gentlemen of Verona, I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking it on the Road, Runaways, The Threepenny Opera (yep, she does “Pirate Jenny”), and The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Naturally, she concludes with A Chorus Line, singing both the original solo that Marvin Hamlisch and Ed Kleban wrote for her character Cassie and the show-stopper they eventually came up with for that spot, “The Music and the Mirror.”

McKechnie performs most of the act’s material but not all; she’s backed by two wonderful singer-dancers, John Eric Parker and Michael Scott, who put over several of the numbers with panache. Stylishly directed by Thommie Walsh, Here’s to the Public offers just enough history to keep the songs in context and just enough dancing to remind us that McKechnie can still do it.

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And Then There’s Maude

It would take a landmark show to match, let alone surpass, the brilliant Irving Berlin tribute that KT Sullivan and Mark Nadler created a couple of years ago. But Maude Maggart’s affectionate look at Berlin’s early career in her new show, which plays through October 8 at the Algonquin Hotel’s Oak Room (click here), is charming and very much worth seeing on its own merits. Maggart’s entertaining patter is delivered with ease, and her voice has such a distinctly “period” quality that she almost seems like a performer from another era.

Perhaps the most inspired aspect of the show is that the singer is backed by both Lanny Meyers on piano and Andy Stein on violin. This combination makes for some particularly lovely arrangements that buoy each song with a fresh sound. Indeed, after attending this show, you’ll wonder why every cabaret performer doesn’t hire a violinist. (Anyone who wants to do so should know that Stein plays beautifully.)

Maggart is smart in focusing on Berlin’s early career; she makes sure to cover the songs that audiences expect (“Always,” “Alexander’s Ragtime Band”) but she also makes room for such little-known treasures as “Yiddish Nightingale” and “Let’s Go Slumming on Park Avenue.” This mixture of the famous and the obsure is quite tasty.

Much has been made of the fact that Andrea Marcovicci has taken Maggart under her wing. You’ll certainly detect the cabaret veteran’s influence in this show: Maggart dresses as elegantly as her mentor, makes a point of playing to everyone in the oddly shaped Oak Room, and has crafted her show in Marcovicci’s famed storytelling style. What Maggart does not do is ape Marcovicci’s personality. She is clearly her own woman with her own talent.

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[To contact the Siegels directly, e-mail them at siegels@theatermania.com.]