Cabaret Review by Andrew Poretz . . . .

Tony-award-winning actress, singer and songwriter Alice Ripley is best known for her big voice as a Broadway star in musicals like The Who’s Tommy, Next to Normal, and Side Show. She’s been most well-known to this writer for her memorable appearances in The Lineup with Susie Mosher at Birdland. Ms. Ripley recently brought her newest solo cabaret show to The Green Room 42, accompanied by only music director/pianist John McDaniel. The star had two successful shows in October. Theater Pizzazz was on hand for her pre-Thanksgiving reprise performance.

Ms. Ripley was dressed in a red gown that flaunted her hourglass figure. She has the kind of mesmerizing and piercing blue eyes that can be seen at a distance.

Mr. McDaniel opened alone at the piano before Ms. Ripley joined for a rousing “There’s No Business Like Show Business.” A rebel, the star gave her opening patter after the first song. The pianist commented, “Everything about it is appealing?” to much laughter, an oblique reference to a social media scandal that temporarily stalled Ms. Ripley’s career in 2021.

Ms. Ripley is a belter who, for the most part, “sings big.” This isn’t always to her advantage in an intimate venue and with only a piano accompaniment. Still, her voice is powerful, her acting strong, her gaze intense. Her emotion underpinned her poignantly well-acted delivery of Sondheim’s “I Remember” (Evening Primrose). She described this as “the most perfect song ever written.” (Interestingly, she noted that Sondheim himself thought “What’s the Use of Wondering?” from Carousel was the most perfect song ever written.)

The star did a great job with the list/story song “You Learn to Live Without” from If/Then (Tom Kitt), with lyrics giving it a folk/country sensibility. She had great fun with “Who Will Love Me As I Am” from Sideshow (Henry Krieger/Bill Russell). Normally a duet performed with Emily Skinner as conjoined twins, she performed both parts, “Like a Sarah McLaughlin solo!” Though written as a duet, the song worked perfectly for Alice as a single part.

Ms. Ripley’s mother’s favorite song is “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Miserables (Claude-Michel Schönberg/Herbert Krezme). The star included the verse that sets up the song, blasting “SHAME!” with such force as to make this writer wonder what he’d done. Ms. Ripley inhabited this song completely, singing with excellent dynamics and emotional resonance. If her voice has lost some of its pliability over the years, it’s been replaced with a sense of life experience in her tone that makes up for it.

The performer described another Sondheim standard, “Losing My Mind” (from Follies), as her “anthem” for turning 55. “I love how the lyric gives you percussion to stay in one place and not move,” she noted, before giving one of the best interpretations this reviewer has heard of this oft-sung anthem.

After some dishy, “inside” patter that invoked much laughter—“Let’s pretend I didn’t say that”—Ms. Ripley performed her “finale,” “Serentiy” from Triumph of Love (Jeffrey Stock/Susan Birkenhead). The star closed the night with “I Miss the Mountains,” her “signature song” that she introduced in Next to Normal (Tom Kitt), earning a sustained standing ovation.

This was a good, somewhat loose show.  Ms. Ripley is funny and responsive. She had a warm rapport with her smallish (not bad for Thanksgiving week), but devoted audience, most of whom appeared to be male musical-theater devotees who reveled in her “inside” stories and references.  A return date has not been announced, but look for her next appearance at The Green Room 42 in 2024.

Alice Ripley appeared on November 21 at The Green Room 42 (in the YOTEL Hotel, 570 10th Avenue at 42nd Steet) www.thegreenroom42.com

Photos: Andrew Poretz