Tyne Daly: Songs

While Tyne Daly is technically making her nightclub debut with Songs at Feinstein’s at the Loews Regency, the multi-award-winning star nonetheless gave a master class in how a cabaret show should be done — with the help of her meritorious musical director John McDaniel and a superbly supportive five-piece band.

Choosing her material with crafty intelligence to magnify the power of her personality and take full advantage of her acting prowess — as well as her voice — Daly did what all great nightclub performers do when they’re alone on a stage: command it with honesty and skill.

Opening with a version of “Some People” from Gypsy laced with hilarious special material written to match the moment, she began the evening by earning uproarious laughter. And while she could have easily put together a career retrospective cabaret act, picking songs to capture various moments in her fascinating professional life (such as Gypsy, which earned her a Tony Award), she attempted something far more ambitious: a nightclub act that felt very much like a retrospective of her life’s emotional journey.

For example, when she sings the heartbreaking song “Job Application” from Ballroom, and follows that with the anthemic “Fifty Percent” from the same show, you cannot help but believe but that she’s filled out such a job application and had once loved a married man, even if neither may be true.

Still, it is a two-song punch that truly shows off her personality and intelligence. She first performs “Hook’s Waltz” from Peter Pan with a zesty sense of silly fun and then immediately sings about a different sort of pirate: the vengeful, bitter, but utterly triumphant (at least in her dreams) “Pirate Jenny” (from The Threepenny Opera). The combination of these songs is nightclub artistry at the highest level, as is all of Daly’s extraordinary act.