BACK STAGE (NEW YORK)
"Bistro Bits"
Reviewed by Barbara and Scott Siegel
Layne Littlepage has done something rather impressive. She has transformed herself into the visual and aural image of the great, if largely forgotten, musical comedy star, Beatrice Lillie.
Lillie is given a retro appeal by virtue of Littlepage's inspired excellence.
Making her entrance on rollerskates, just like Lillie once did, Littlepage rolled into the High Spirits Room stage with hilarious ungainliness--yet she was then, and throughout her act, totally in control of herself and her material.
Her act, like her subject's 1952 Tony Award-winning one-woman show, is called "An Evening With Beatrice Lillie." It's an evening to savor.
Recreating Lillie's own signature songs, she performs two smartly constructed medleys at either end of her show and, in between, performs goofy numbers like "I Always Say Hello To A Flower" and "The Yodeling Goldfish." If this is the kind of show you like, you're going to like it a lot.
One way to find out if Littlepage is writ large in your future is to check out her CD, conveniently titled, "An Evening With Beatrice Lillie."