Poor Betty Buckley!

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 8:47pm

The New York Observer
Screeching Betty Buckley Bombs in Feinstein Fiasco
By Rex Reed
February 24, 2009 | 1:10 p.m

Betty Buckley
Broadway by Request
Feinstein’s at LOEWS Regency

Being forced to listen to Betty Buckley screech her way through Andrew Lloyd Webber’s godawful “Memory” for the nine millionth time reminds me of what the Japanese did to American POWs in World War II. This ossified assault on the ears from Cats is just part of the torture being staged nightly at Feinstein’s at Loews Regency through March 7.

It’s an experience I consider three inches south of unlistenable.

Directed with a sledgehammer by Richard Jay-Alexander, who knows better, this sloppy excuse for a cabaret act would be unacceptable with free food coupons, but at these prices one is tempted to call in the Bureau of Consumer Affairs. After his rambling, incoherent intro, illustrated with film clips of Sissy Spacek in the movie Carrie (what any of this has to do with Betty Buckley is a major mystery), comedian Seth Rudetsky begins his cluttered piano accompaniment for an act that raises eyebrows before the star of the show even enters from the kitchen. Called “Broadway by Request,” the mere concept reeks of suspicion, since every second-rate song in the act has been prepared in advance. Anyone naïvely seeking assurance that Feinstein’s is a reliable bastion of beautiful music from the archives of the Great American Songbook is wholeheartedly advised to stay home with a Blossom Dearie CD. There are no surprises in the agony on display here, and you will not hear a single classic by Kern, Porter, Berlin or Rodgers and Hart. Trust me. Andrew Lloyd Webber is a vile substitute for Oscar Hammerstein.

I am always happy for the success of a fellow Texan transported to the Apple, and Betty Lynn Buckley, from Fort Worth, has a Texas tumbleweed personality laced with warm, funny candor that is probably appealing in a penthouse living room. And to be fair, I have always admired her acting. She was excellent in the 1983 film Tender Mercies, and I never missed her on the brutal HBO series Oz. But as far as I’m concerned, she should stick to talking and stay as far away from singing as a 747 can carry her. Whether she’s shrieking her way through a Burt Bacharach ballad or breaking glasses on a Stephen Schwartz song from Pippin, she claims there’s a little child inside who does all of her singing for her. That child must be a screaming schizophrenic. On opening night, a woman collapsed in the middle of her blistering histrionics, knocking over a table, and while the stunned audience waited for her to be picked off the floor and carried out, Ms. Buckley continued full-speed ahead like a runaway diesel truck on the Long Island Expressway, completely unfazed.

Like press-on nails scraping across a blackboard, she tackles one overwrought song after another, plowing through Sondheim’s “No One Is Alone” from Into the Woods, a show she claims was “partially written” for her, and tells a bitter story about Patti LuPone, who was enraged when Ms. Buckley sang “Meadowlark.” She called up LuPone, the only diva who can sing an aria louder and uglier than Betty Buckley, to apologize, and LuPone sniffed: “How would you feel if I sang ‘Memory’?” Now I am here to tell you the thought of Patti LuPone caterwauling her way through “Memory” is the musical equivalent of bamboo shoots under the fingernails.

The act’s gimmick: a hat sits on the piano, from which she randomly plucks “audience requests.” Of course, those requests are songs she has either recorded or performed in shows, all carefully rehearsed, spontaneous as a valedictory speech, and belted like a ranch foreman calling cows. God forbid someone should write “Long Ago and Far Away” or “Blue Moon.” She might go into cardiac arrest. It would be interesting if she used her experience, maturity and gray hair to examine the lyrics on a standard worth singing, like Oscar Levant’s “Blame it on My Youth.” But she leaves songs gutted, like catfish.

There is one funny story about losing the Miss Fort Worth pageant to a bodacious belle who recited a monologue from Gone With the Wind while eating a turnip. But the talk is mostly mean-spirited and self-pitying, and there is entirely too much of it. Even if I liked her singing, which I don’t, I would consider it undercut by so much verbiage. (Maybe not such a bad thing after all; it postpones her massacring the music.) But I remain undaunted in my belief that there’s a big difference between singing from the guts and singing from the heart. She needles notes to death until the songs become predictable and tiresome. It’s a bad habit that I see in many of today’s pop tarts, from Jennifer Hudson to that ghastly little Miley Cyrus—both guilty of the same bombast. Not all singers can play an instrument. Not all musicians are singers. But all singers should be musical—except the ones who mangle lyrics without a thought for subtext, phrasing or timing. Betty Buckley is a crypto-Merman drama queen who sacrifices subtlety, tone, restraint and originality of interpretation for hair-raising shrieks, phony emotions and infuriating mannerisms. When tears come flowing down her cheeks on cue, I don’t believe a minute of it. What some of her fans hear as the clarion call of a clear bell comes across to me as the wail of a fire engine.

I’m no fan, but Betty Lynn Buckley’s success is real enough to warrant a better show than the lazy, exasperating mess to which her audiences are being subjected at Feinstein’s.
Screeching Betty Buckley Bombs in Feinstein Fiasco

[Q]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 9:20pm

"LuPone, the only diva who can sing an aria louder and uglier than Betty Buckley"

I'm surprised you posted the article, since it included that little bon mot.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 9:28pm

I posted the article because it is a lesson in bitchery.

[best12bars]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 9:31pm

It really IS a lesson in bitchery.

Jesus. What critter crawled into his cocktail that night?

[best12bars]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 9:32pm

That review says more about the critic than it does about the singer.

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 9:34pm

I love how delightfully pompous every single sentence is.

He says from the start that he's never been a fan, so how can we expect him to give an impartial review anyway? I also like how he dismisses Seth Rudetsky in one sentence as "comedian Seth Rudetsky..."

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 9:39pm

"Rex Reed" sounds like a cartoon reporter name, like someone who'd hang out with Clark Kent at the Daily Planet.

By the way, I Wikipedia'd Rex Reed, and even on a site that makes Saddam Hussein sound like a totally neutral personality, Reed comes off as a sad, dismal loser: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rex_Reed

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 9:44pm

I don't care if everyone thinks I am a moron with no taste, Betty's belt in Memory from the Tony broadcast gives me chills. Eh. Can't help it.

Oh, and she may be a little batty, but that reviewer comes across as a total tool.

Updated On: 2/26/09 at 09:44 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 9:51pm

Rex Reed, about 150 years ago:




Rex Reed, today, despite countless face lifts, eye jobs and protein facials:

[scott68]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 9:59pm

I love the bit about not understanding the connection between Betty and Carrie. I mean... really?

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 10:06pm

Updated On: 4/17/13 at 10:06 PM

[Princeton78]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 10:12pm

Ouch..
I had the privilege of seeing Ms. Buckley in September, and though her age is showing, she certainly was able to put across "Memory," and as a proud fan of "Cats," I can tell you, she's still got the gusto for the final verse.

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 10:20pm

Well, I'm sure this is exactly the reaction that Reed wanted his review to get anyway.

[nexttoelectric]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 10:33pm

Someone got bad news at the free clinic.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 10:58pm

I've always thought Betty Buckley's voice had a metallic sound to it.

And I have to agree that picking songs out of a hat is a corny concept.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 11:36pm

Schmerg? Two posts in a row, one of which is you sharing what you discovered on Wickipedia about Rex Reed? Many of us know full well who Rex Reed is, so maybe you should let the grown-ups talk about this?

[etoile]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 11:37pm

"...reminds me of what the Japanese did to American POWs in World War II."

To me that statement alone discounted any value to his article. How disgusting, how appalling to try and minimize or trivialize the suffering inflicted on those WWII veterans. For what? An inappropriate attempted at an analogy?

Walk a mile in their shoes, dickwad, then tell us if you feel the atrocities of the the Bataan Death March equate to someone singing. Shame on you, Rex, you're old enough to remember. Shame on you.

Updated On: 2/27/09 at 11:37 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 11:41pm

Word. The star of Myra Breckenridge has zero critical credibility.

I remember him reviewing Purple Rain on TV and saying, "And Prince, what is THAT? He looks like Maria Montez in a Cobra Woman movie." Rex, at the time, was wearing eye shadow.

[jeniferrenepatricia]

Posted: 2/27/09 at 1:52am

"Called “Broadway by Request,” the mere concept reeks of suspicion, since every second-rate song in the act has been prepared in advance. There are no surprises in the agony on display here......"

I don't know what the hell Rex Reed is talking about. Betty did "Broadway by Request" last year in Feinstein's, and I attended three shows. Each time I went, she sang a variety of songs, but always included "Memory" for each performance. One of my friends suggested "Surrey With the Fringe on the Top" and Betty sang that song. When she picks something out of the hat, she mentions the audience member's name, then will say "yes" or "no" if she will do that song. I can recall her turning down a song or two, but generally, she sang everything requested. I asked for "When There's No One" from Carrie, and she did that song for me. All of the shows were fabulous, entertaining, and her stories were funny and endearing. My money was well spent. I'm going to see this year's show on March 6th....I can't imagine that Seth Rudetsky or Richard Jay Alexander changed the show so much from last year. No matter what, I'm sure Betty will be in top form.

[nmartin]

Posted: 2/27/09 at 4:40am

I would love to be able to see Buckley perform at Feinstein's, on Broadway or the lobby of the Greyhound bus station. Any place will do.

[tazber]

Posted: 2/27/09 at 5:44am

Ouch!

Whoever mentioned that this tirade says more about Reed than Buckely is right on.
It seems like he has been coming up these zingers in his head for a long time, just waiting for a chance to publish them ostensibly as a "review".

[StageManager2]

Posted: 2/27/09 at 6:10am

"I love the bit about not understanding the connection between Betty and Carrie. I mean... really?"

I know, right? Not only did she star in one of the most infamous flops in Broadway history, but she also had a bit part (as the gym teacher) in the movie version, as well. Since he's mainly a film critic, I guess I can give him a pass for being ignorant about Broadway (and Buckley's) history.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/27/09 at 8:04am

Shame on you, Rex, you're old enough to remember. Shame on you.

Rex is old enough to remember the Battle of Bunker Hill.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 2/27/09 at 9:05am

This nearly made me snort coffee out my nose:
Arrest

In February 2000, Reed was arrested for shoplifting after leaving a Tower Records, in Manhattan, with CDs by Mel Tormé, Peggy Lee, and Carmen McRae in his jacket pockets. Reed, who had just purchased two other CDs, says he forgot about the other 3 CDs and his offer to pay for them was refused. The charges were later dropped.[5] According to Reed, several days after the arrest Peggy Lee sent him her entire catalog of CDs, because "she was so thrilled I wanted one of her CDs enough to put myself through so much hell."[6]

[Auggie27]

Posted: 2/27/09 at 9:21am

It reads like an untalented, straight male parody of show queen excess, albeit one without a satiric point of view. What's startling is the sledgehammer to a gnat weight of his assault, the absence of any genuine wit, and the unedited redudancies. On and on it goes, circling back on points made early, without much observation or analysis, just petty, subjective musings and ham-fisted metaphors, all noted in other posts. I swear he still pounds this stuff out on a typewriter -- an instrument lacking a delete capability -- which might in part account for the long-winded, repetitive blather.

Updated On: 2/27/09 at 09:21 AM