If there’s anyone who has a right to sing Stephen Sondheim’s “Broadway Baby,” it’s Andrea McArdle. She originated the title role in Annie when she was only thirteen and is still the youngest performer to receive a Tony Award nomination for a leading role. She’s appeared on Broadway in four musicals since then, although the last time was a quarter-century ago as a replacement Belle in Beauty and the Beast. And she’s starred in regional productions of such classic musicals as Evita, Cabaret, Annie Get Your Gun, Gypsy, Mame, and Hello, Dolly! among others. At this point, she’s also entitled to sing another Sondheim song, “I’m Still Here.”
Her extensive career informs her new show at 54 Below, appropriately titled Confessions of a Broadway Baby. It features a set list composed of mostly very familiar numbers from many of the aforementioned musicals, and seems less geared to musical theater fanatics than the sort of audiences who would go to see her in such places as Palm Springs and Boca Raton, where she’s recently performed. But even if you won’t hear any obscurities, the evening offers myriad pleasures, not the least of which is hearing her belt out her signature song in a voice that’s remarkably unchanged.
If you have to ask what that song is, you’re probably not the target audience. Of course, it’s “Tomorrow,” which McArdle waits to perform until nearly the end of the evening. Before that, though, she delivers a delicious anecdote about how she had grown disgusted of being associated with that classic Annie number until she was set straight by no less than Carol Channing (whom she imitates amusingly). When they performed together in the revue Jerry’s Girls, Channing got upset hearing McArdle complain and reminded her that having a signature song was a gift to be treasured, not disparaged. When McArdle pointed out that their co-star Leslie Uggams lacked a signature song, Channing replied, “Exactly.”
McArdle, who displays crack comic timing in her well-honed anecdotes, isn’t above trading on nostalgia, as demonstrated by such things as the vintage photographs of her as a child performer, including pictures of her posing with the dog who played Sandy, that are projected early in the evening. And it did the trick, with one woman in the audience sobbing as she filmed McArdle singing the plaintive “Maybe.”
Musical theater nerds will relate to McArdle’s account of growing up in Philadelphia and becoming determined to pursue a stage career after seeing Angela Lansbury in Gypsy at the Forrest Theater. She was soon journeying regularly to New York — “I owe my career to Amtrak!” she announces — and landed the role that made her instantly iconic.
“I will forever never be able to live that red-haired orphan down,” she says at one point, but it’s clear that she no longer has any interest in doing so. Much of the show consists of songs from the other musicals in which she’s appeared, including “They Say It’s Wonderful” from Annie Get Your Gun, “Before the Parade Passes By” from Dolly, “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Miz, and “It Might as Well Be Spring” from State Fair. Having played the young Judy Garland in the television movie Rainbow, she also performs exuberant renditions of “Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart” and “The Trolley Song,” as well as, naturally, “Over the Rainbow.” Only occasionally does she drift from her own stage work with such pop songs as “The Way We Were” and Billy Joel’s “Angry Young Man,” the latter of which she says is more relevant than ever.
She joked about having been a regular at the original Studio 54 even though she was underage, and how she and her rambunctious Annie co-stars were probably the inspiration for the term “child wrangler.” And she told amusing stories about such shows as Starlight Express, with its plethora of malfunctioning set elements and onstage injuries. “It was the Spider-Man of the ‘80s, but worse,” she jokes.
Accompanied by her longtime pianist Steve Marzullo, McArdle showcases the kind of vocal chops that make her ideal for old-fashioned musicals. While occasionally lacking nuance, it’s a big, brassy voice that practically demands being accompanied by an orchestra. Her return to Broadway is long past due.
Andrea McArdle opened March 29, 2024 , at 54 Below and runs through March 30. Tickets and information: 54below.com
