photo by Heather Sullivan
Richard Skipper as Carol Channing
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Well, hello, Carol! It’s so nice to have you back where you belong, on stage, reliving those magical moments, as Richard Skipper brings a new edition of his loving tribute to Carol Channing to Off-Broadway’s St. Luke’s Theatre, in the Theater District. Skipper’s Channing remains effervescent and ever-fresh, presenting the familiar songs that made this Broadway legend famous, which are always fun to hear again, as well as probing other numbers she might plausibly have sung. She shares myriad reminiscences and further involves the audience by incorporating a fair amount of interaction with its members. Supporting the artist are Musical Director John Fischer, bassist Jeff Carney, and percussionist Steve Bartosik—though drummer Aaron Russell substituted at the performance I attended—and Mark Robert Gordon directed. A portion of the proceeds benefits the Dr. Carol Channing & Harry Kullijian Foundation for the Arts, furthering school children’s education in “the fine and performing arts tradition,” as Channing herself put it. “Carol Channing” in Concert opened on January 12 and plays on Wednesdays at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Richard/‘Carol’ certainly keeps us smiling, expansively welcoming us with the title song from Jerry Herman’s “Hello, Dolly!” and segueing into “Broadway Baby,” from Stephen Sondheim’s “Follies,” in which she did not appear, but who better to tackle this anthem of a theatrical trooper and survivor? She tells us how pleased she is to be in our company in Harold Karr and Matt Dubey’s “Gee, But It’s Good to Be Here,” which Ethel Merman sang in “Happy Hunting.” Although the role of matchmaker Dolly Gallagher Levi was, of course, created by Channing, it was first intended for Merman, who eventually took the protagonist’s part as the last Dolly of the original Broadway run.

Carol aptly juxtaposes charming gold digger Lorelei Lee’s “Bye Bye Baby,” by Jule Styne and Leo Robin, from “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” after Anita Loos’ book, with Ervin Drake specialty number “Widow’s Weeds,” song of a very merry widow indeed, possibly Lorelei’s louche ‘evil twin,’ whose succession of husbands leaves her well provided for, and for whom “Avis keeps a rent-a-hearse” in the ready. For the former, Carol selects an audience member to play her Daddy and dance with her, for as she points out in “Little Girl from Little Rock,” she learned the invaluable lesson, early on, that “the one you call your Daddy ain’t your Pa.” She surveys souvenirs of an eventful lifetime in Styne, Betty Comden and Adolph Green’s “Looking Back,” from the “Gentlemen” remake/sequel “Lorelei,” and considers written questions from the audience. On the night discussed here, the first of these came from her Broadway colleague Lee Roy Reams (“Lorelei,” “Hello, Dolly!” revival), who asked her about singing the two songs, “World, Take Me Back” and “Love, Look in My Window,” restored to “Dolly” when Merman took over, and she gently put him off by promising that she would sing them—when he came back the following day!

The diva tosses jewelry to the crowd during signature tune “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” from “Gentlemen,” and, introduces, with Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn’s title song from “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” the song that was hers, as Muzzy, in the film, Blanche Merrill and M.K. Jerome’s “Jazz Baby,” with a long sustained note on the syllable “Dad,” in “Daddy,” and a triumphant high note at the end.

The tour de force of the evening is a “Dolly” medley, beginning with “I Put My Hand In” and “Put on Your Sunday Clothes;” and taking Horace Vandergelder’s viewpoint in “It Takes a Woman;” before moving us with the spoken monologue addressed to Dolly’s late husband, Ephraim Levi, starting out “Ephraim, let me go” and concluding with the resolution, “I’ve decided to rejoin the human race! I’m going to marry Horace Vandergelder and, Ephraim, I want you to give me away!”; and capped with a lively and determined “Before the Parade Passes By,” with a reprise of “Hello, Dolly!” with a long-held final note, as a sort of encore. Still drawing on “Dolly,” she takes her leave of us with the actual encore, “So Long Dearie.”

For tickets, at $41.50, 66.50 and 76.50, to see and hear Richard Skipper as “Carol Channing” in Concert, visit www.Telecharge.com or telephone 212/239-6200. The St. Luke’s Theatre is located at 308 West 46th Street, just west of Eighth Avenue.