CHRISTINE EBERSOLE COMES TO THE WALLIS
Two-time Tony award-winning actress Christine Ebersole has really done it all. I’ve seen her on the Broadway stage, on television, in films and concerts, and own her many recordings. Not only is she one of our most captivating performers, but she’s funny as all get-out. I still recall her amazing 1993 turn as the carny floozy Trixie Delight in the almost-made-it-to-Broadway musical version of Paper Moon. (“She stole everything but the house curtain,” critic Ethan Mordden wrote). I said 
this about her recent appearance here in L.A. (pictured left) with Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike: “She is among America’s top-notch comediennes, deftly balancing pathos, zaniness, vulnerability, and outlandishness with spot-on dead pan comic timing.”
In September of 2014, in an artistic reflection on home and family, Christine opened a brand new concert, Big Noise from Winnetka at New York’s 54 Below. I remember being so disappointed that I wasn’t able to catch La Ebersole in an intimate space. For both myself and you, dear reader, I’m happy to announce that she is coming to Beverly Hills this weekend with the same hit cabaret show (Jan. 23 – 29, 2016). Thanks to the new series sponsored by the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts (Cabaret @ The Wallis), you’ll get to see her offer both classic and reimagined Broadway hits, pop and jazz classics and anecdotes about growing up.
The title of the show is a hit song from the Thirties, but it slyly refers to the headliner, a Chicago North Shore native raised in Winnetka, Il. The youngest of four children, she played violin in the New Trier High School orchestra and finally discovered her own voice in a summer drama class (she’s picture here at age 3).
Overall, the show tells a story about growing up, having children and making choices. Meticulous song selection and unique arrangements featuring doses of ’˜60’s rock ’˜n’ roll and folk, gospel and ’˜70’s funk, all help to tell a bigger story. The concert also presents some revamped renditions of Ebersole’s signature Broadway songs. This will be an amazing showcase for Ebersole’s vocal range, deft lyrical interpretation, and great sense of humor while still capturing a snapshot of that rebellious North Shore youth who dreamed of running away from home so she didn’t have to continue piano lessons.
Song choices include a vintage-styled 1917 swing tune, “The Darktown Strutters’ Ball”; Broadway songs such as “Something Good” from The Sound of Music; and a collection of popular tunes, like Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide.”
Christine won the 2007 Tony for Outstanding Actress in the “role of a lifetime” as “Edie Beale” (pictured left) in the great musical, Grey Gardens. Lauded with virtually every Off-Broadway theater award when it premiered at Playwrights Horizon, the show transferred to Broadway, where it played for over a year, in no small part due to her bravura performance (Christine followed Grey Gardens with the Broadway production of Blithe Spirit opposite Angela Lansbury and Rupert Everett). Also in her Wallis cabaret act at the Lovelace Studio Theatre in Beverly Hills is a funky disco revamp of “The Revolutionary Costume for Today” from Grey Gardens.
Don’t miss this legend up close.
photos from Christine Ebersole.com
Christine Ebersole: Big Noise From Winnetka
Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts
9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd in Beverly Hills
January 24-29, 2016 at 7:00 pm
for tickets, call 310-746-4000 or visit The Wallis
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Love Christine all the way back to her Ado Annie days in the revival of Oklahoma at the Palace Theatre in NYC where I had the privilege of playing her Pa. What a gifted woman.