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Leslie Uggams: Uptown Downtown
One of the advantages of being selected to participate in Lincoln Center's annual American Songbook series — four weeks of concerts beginning in mid-January, the acts chosen from a range of musical fields — is the audience itself. Broadway singers can be sure of a smart and canny crowd, a mix of fans and mere admirers who are interested in what they are up to. An experienced performer with stage sense can use the opportunity to give us something a little different than what they usually do; not just their greatest hits, but a sense of where they are hoping to go next. The Songbook audience turns thumbs up or slightly down, but respectfully and encouragingly so.

Such was the case with Leslie Uggams' Uptown Downtown in February 2010. Uptown was the Apollo, where nine-year-old Uggams made her debut in 1950 as one of those uncanny child performers with an oversized voice. (Appearing on amateur night, she kept winning week after week until they finally signed her up and put her on the bill.) Downtown was Broadway, where she arrived in 1968 at the age of 24 to take a Tony in Hallelujah, Baby! If Uptown Downtown might have sounded like it was going to be one of those nostalgic, self-congratulatory wallows, Uggams made it clear off the bat — with her opening rendition of "There's a Boat Dat's Leavin' Soon for New York" — that the only middle-aged performer she emulated was the dynamic Lena Horne of The Lady and Her Music.