RICE IS ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS AT THE BEECHMAN

If the glorious gods that govern cabaret were to take the coloratura vocal stylings and elegance of Barbara Cook, merge them with the earthiness and humor of Baby Jane Dexter, and wrap the whole package in a unique bundle of sparkle, the end result would without question be Sarah Rice. A Broadway legend perhaps best known for creating the role of Johanna in the original production of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, the revival of her acclaimed act Screen Gems: Songs Of Old Hollywood (which re-launched in early February and will run at the Laurie Beechman Theatre at the West Bank Cafe, 407 West 42nd Street through the end of April, on selected nights and times), is, quite simply, one of those evenings where one feels Beechman herself is looking down upon the room from the heavens and applauding with reckless abandon.

From the opening strains of "At The Moving Picture Ball" coupled with "The Vamp," and a delightful array of anecdotes about such silent film stars as Theda Bara ("Her favorite thing in the whole world was to stay home and make cabbage soup"), Mary Pickford ("She was rather like Shirley Temple meets Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?") and Rudolph Valentino ("He was the only star in the world to have both candy AND condoms named after him"), Rice hits her stride with a medley of "The Age Of Not Believing," "I'm Wishing" and "Someday My Prince Will Come." Once firmly flying high in this particular holding pattern, from there the evening soars to the skies on an unequaled trip that takes us through a coupling of "Hindustan" and "The Sheik Of Araby," the Helen Kane hit "He's So Unusual," sprinkled with the appropriate Noo Yawk accent and boop-boopy-doops, and a true standout, "Paradise," originally made famous by Pola Negri, and which could not be more captivating on every level. A three-song medley of "Temptation," "Jalousie" and "Revenge" is actually trumped in spite of itself by a delivery of Kurt Weill's "Pirate Jenny," so breathtaking and definitive that Rice has virtually claimed the song as her own for now and time immemorial, and by the time she eases into the "Italian Street Song" from Victor Herbert's Naughty Marietta, she has transformed herself before our eyes into a Nordic Saraghina, who wouldn't be out of place in Fellini's legendary film 8 1/2.

After a guest appearance by the brilliant chanteur Frank Basile (currently also loaning his musical talents to the Twyla Tharp-Frank Sinatra composition "Come Fly Away" on Broadway at the Marquis Theater) on a duet of the title number from The Desert Song, by Sigmund Romberg, Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein, the surprises continue to unfold as Rice unleashes an impeccable rendering of the Yma Sumac chestnut "Taka Rari," in which she somehow manages to assume an authentic Peruvian mountain dialect besides all of the requisite and flawless vocal sounds. As if none of this is enough, her eleven o'clock number is a coupling of Meredith Willson's "My White Knight" with "Bill" from Show Boat, impressive enough to cause the audience to momentarily stop breathing. And by the time Rice brings the evening to a close, with a singularly unique version of Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancini's "Moon River," the crowd gathered is not merely her fans but a worshiping cult.

Equally remarkable are the musicians Rice has gathered for this evening. John DiPinto is simply superb on both piano and synthesizer (and possibly never more so than on "Temptation"), the indomitable bassist Ritt Henn is in top form (and especially on "What Is A Youth?" from the 1968 Zeffirelli film of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet) and Bobby Sher's multi-layered percussion is absolutely scrumptious at every turn. Director JoAnn Yeoman should be extremely content with such effervescent handling of the evening, as should Seth Weinstein for the splendiferous musical arrangements he co-created with Rice.

There are no words left to speak. Whether Sarah Rice makes her next appearance in Screen Gems or an entirely new cabaret vehicle, one simply must run and not walk to see and hear the power and the glory that will surely be her performance.