Rita Gardner Remembers

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                   Rita Gardner is remembering.  Watching her on the small stage of Metropolitan Room, beautifully performing songs and telling compelling stories from the Golden Age of Off-Broadway (the late 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s), one word comes to mind above all others: “authentic.”   For she was there, performing in the small theatres and nightclubs of NY where, as she says, there weren’t many chairs and most of them were broken.  She was there, in the cast of Nightcap, a revue that established Jerry Herman as a songwriter with a future. 

She was there, starring in the long-running, historic revue Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, in the 1964 revival of Marc Blitzstein’s The Cradle Will Rock, in the original runs of outstanding plays like Lorraine Hansberry’s To Be Young, Gifted and Black and Steel Magnolias.  And, of course, she was there on opening night, May 3, 1960, at the Sullivan Street Playhouse, originating the role of Louisa in The Fantasticks.   And if you don’t know what The Fantasticks is, you will soon get a call from the “Culturally Clueless Club!”

Ms. Gardner is currently in the middle of her Metropolitan Room run of Try to Remember: A Look Back at Off-Broadway, her first NY cabaret engagement in over twenty years.  (There are only three performances left: Friday, Sept. 16 at 9:30pm, Saturday, Sept. 17 at 7pm and Sunday, Sept. 18 at 7pm.)  This lovingly put-together tribute to not only the shows she appeared in, but the outstanding musicals and songs of Off-Broadway in general, was first produced roughly twelve years ago, coinciding with the Fortieth Anniversary of The Fantasticks at the very same theatre on Sullivan Street.  This time, as then, she shares the stage with the illustrious musical director Alex Rybeck and is directed by the multi-award-winning Barry Kleinbort, with musical staging by Broadway veteran Pamela Sousa and additional dialogue by Kenneth Friedman.  Joining the show’s team for its cabaret debut is Consulting Producer Sherry Eaker (and if you don’t know who she is, then expect a call from the “Theatre and Cabaret Community Clueless Club!”).

The show’s highlights include a medley of over a dozen songs from shows that originated Off-Broadway, ranging from Little Mary Sunshine to Rent, a touching tribute to Gardner’s Fantasticks co-star and great friend, the late Kenneth Nelson, and of course several songs from its Harvey Schmidt/Tom Jones score. There are also perceptive, amusing anecdotes which I won’t spoil for you, beyond saying that the one about Cicely Tyson and her skullcap is priceless.

After seeing the show, I spoke to the warm, genuine and charming Gardner, who spoke candidly about her career, sharing some stories with me that are not in the show, like how she got her nickname.  She was performing in Nightcap with the irrepressible Charles Nelson Reilly, who would go on to great success in Broadway’s How to Succeed…, Hello, Dolly! and, yes, TV’s “Match Game.” 

“My first name was misspelled in a cabaret publication,” Rita recalls, “the ‘a’ replaced by a ‘z’.  So, Charles began calling me ‘Ritz’ and the name stuck.”

Kenneth Nelson was also in Nightcap, before playing “Matt” to Rita’s “Louisa.”  Rita remembers a fateful train ride in 1968, with Nelson and another member of their Fantasticks family, the late Jerry Orbach.

“We were on our way back from doing ‘The Mike Douglas Show,’ and Kenneth was wrestling with whether he should accept the leading role in a new play.  I could tell that he loved the script, but he was frightened of it because it dealt with homosexuality, a subject which was very daring in those days.  I asked him, ‘Kenneth, what would you do if someone else got the part?  How would you feel?  Perhaps this is the beginning of something.  Maybe you should take a chance and be a part of it.’ The play was The Boys in the Band and Kenneth had a great success with it, both Off-Broadway and in the film version.”

This story served as a springboard for her general philosophy about her career, which has also spanned Broadway (most recently The Wedding Singer) film (the upcoming Tiger Lily Road) and television (every permutation of “Law & Order“), to name just a few of her credits.

“Work is an end to itself.  Everything is a job, whatever it is, acting, singing, teaching, whatever.  And you must always keep studying, which I still do.  Readiness is all.”

And what is Rita ready for next?

“Well, I would like to continue to perform Try to Remember, especially in colleges, to introduce the glories of Off-Broadway to those too young to remember if first-hand, as I do.  I also just started voicing the character of the grandmother on an animated television series ‘Dora the Explorer.’  I didn’t know it.  Do you? “

I chuckled and told Rita about the show’s phenomenal popularity with the under-six set, thus saving her a call from the “Toddler’s Television Clueless Club! “  Finally, I asked her how she felt about her return to cabaret after so many years and how it differs from theatre.

“I love doing the show at Metropolitan Room.  Everyone there has been so good to me.  Of course, I had to make it a little shorter and my performance a bit more intimate.  We also had to change some of the staging because the club’s stage is even smaller than Sullivan Street’s!  But of course, I had my wonderful team, Alex, Barry and Pamela, to help me make the transition.  And I must also give a great deal of credit to Sherry for guiding me through the process of doing a cabaret show in these days of emails and Facebook and all that!  But the nicest thing is seeing how strongly audiences of all ages respond to these wonderful songs.  I hope it encourages them to continue to explore our musical past, because without it, there can be no future.  Like the song says, ‘Try to remember, and if you remember, then follow’.”

Rita Gardner in Try to Remember: A Look Back at Off-Broadway continues its run at Metropolitan Room from Sept. 16-18.  For reservations and further information, visit the club’s website at www.metropolitanroom.com or call (212)206-0440.