Tony Award-winner Christine Ebersole's Nov. 5-Dec. 17 cabaret act, Live in New York, is sold out at Arci's Place in Manhattan, but three more Monday nights and a New Year's Eve date have been added there.
The 2001 Best Actress in a Musical for 42nd Street has been a sold-out success in her act at Arci's, presented on her night off from the Broadway hit. The new dates are Dec. 31 ($250 per person with cocktails, a five-course meal and a bottle of champagne; black tie only) plus Jan. 7, 21 and 28 ($30 per person).
The limited engagement marks Ebersole's first cabaret appearance in New York in more than 20 years. The show, a variation of her popular act at Los Angeles Cinegrill in 1998, represents Ebersole's journey as a performer, wife and mom, and as a bicoastal actress, with musical styles ranging from pop to torch song to jazz and country. Scott Wittman directs (as he did in L.A.) and Academy Award-nominated composer-pianist Marc Shaiman musical directs. Ebersole sings "The Man That Got Away," "Bill," "Shanghai" and "My Ship," among other standards.
The New Year's Eve event begins at 8:30 PM and includes favors and piano entertainment by Johnny Rodgers.
* Ebersole appeared on Broadway in I Love My Wife, On the Twentieth Century, the 1979 revival of Oklahoma!, in which she played Ado Annie, and the Camelot revival opposite Richard Burton. Among her TV work is a stint as a cast member of "Saturday Night Live." The blonde character actress is known for her comic performances on TV sitcoms and playing Tessie Tura in the TV remake of "Gypsy," starring Better Midler. Her New York appearances just prior to 42nd Street were in the Encores! revival of A Connecticut Yankee and the Broadway revival of Gore Vidal's The Best Man.
Christine Ebersole: Live in New York plays 8 PM Mondays. Tickets are $30 with a $15 minimum. Arci's Place is at 450 Park Avenue between 30th and 31st streets. For reservations, call (212) 532-4370 or visit arcisplace.com.
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Ebersole's little-known CD, "Live at the Cinegrill," a record of her 1997 club act at the Cinegrill in Los Angeles, resurfaced in fall 2001 and has been selling like hotcakes at specialty stores and at Arci's Place. Visit Footlight, the beloved specialty show-tune record shop on 12th Street in Manhattan (www.footlight.com).
Patter and all, Ebersole is heard on the disc telling of life in Los Angeles following success in New York (in the 1979 revival of Oklahoma!, among other projects) and personal and professional highs and lows. She sings specialty numbers and standards with musical direction and arrangements by David Snyder (playing with the David Snyder Trio). Scott Wittman directed in L.A., as he does at Arci's. The record label is Wailing.
The CD includes Maury Yeston's "New Words," Dave Frishberg's "Do You Miss New York?," Kern and Hammerstein's "The Folks Who Live on the Hill" paired with Gordon Jenkins' "San Fernando Valley," Kern and Hammerstein and P.G. Wodehouse's "Bill," Vic Mizzy and Manny Jurtz's "No Bout Adout It," Larry Grossman and Ellen Fitzhugh's "The Animal in the Pit," Arlen and Gershwin's "The Man That Got Away," Gershwin and Weill's "My Ship," Leo Robin, Richard Whiting and W. Franke Harling's "Beyond the Blue Horizon," Harry Belafonte, Malvina Reynolds and Alan Greene's "Turn Around," Joni Mitchell's "Circle Game" and Frank Loesser's "More I Cannot Wish You."
To view a May 2001 Playbill On-Line Brief Encounter interview with Christine Ebersole, click here.
— By Kenneth Jones
