Bernadette Peters: Her Voice is Still, Oh, So Sweet
Just-turned-60 singer Bernadette Peters brings her skilled musical crew to Cleveland on Friday
By Elaine Guregian
Beacon Journal arts and culture writer
Published on Thursday, Mar 27, 2008
Bernadette Peters is on the phone, and she sounds remarkably like herself.
Is it possible that the woman with the little-girl New Yorker voice straight out of a bygone era really sounds just like she did in movies like The Jerk or Pennies From Heaven?
Yep.
Just as sweet, too.
The woman with the mane of corkscrew curls is coming to Cleveland on Friday night to sing at the Allen Theatre of Playhouse Square. The North Coast Men's Chorus, which is presenting Peters, will sing in the first half of the program. Peters will sing in the second half, accompanied by the Cleveland Pops Orchestra and her musical director, Marvin Laird, who might also accompany her on some solos.
The North Coast Men's Chorus calls itself Northeast Ohio's largest gay chorus, with about 100 singers. Gay men are a large part of Peters' fan base, as she well knows.
''They're just a very sensitive group of people, which I just find so heart-touching. We're all so careful about hiding our emotions. Gay people have to deal with what they're feeling and decide whether they're going to let it out or hold it in. It's so wonderful that it's becoming easier for them,'' Peters said. ''My main concern is for young people, because you get into all kinds of trouble when you have to hide who you are.''
Peters, who turned 60 last month, was born in Ozone Park, N.Y., and got an early start in show business. She told the audience of the CD Bernadette Peters Live at Carnegie Hall, which benefited the Gay Men's Health Crisis, that she was on tour, age 13, when she first met Laird, her current musical director and pianist. They met again later and began working as a team. Now they have been together ''for years and years,'' Peters said.
The singer brings her own rhythm section (bass, drums and piano) along for concerts like the one in Cleveland. She brings her own lighting and sound technicians, too.
The North Coast Men's Chorus has already endeared itself to Peters by arranging to have the Cleveland Animal Protective League bring in dogs in need of adoptive homes to the Allen Theatre's lobby. When the animal-loving singer/actress found out about the plan, during this phone call, she gasped in delight.
''Maybe they'll have a little one I can bring onstage at the end of the show. I did that once and, of course, the puppy got adopted right away,'' Peters said.
Ten years ago, just after starring on Broadway as Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun, Peters and her friend Mary Tyler Moore founded a project called Broadway Barks, to place dogs in New York City who needed homes. It holds annual adopt-a-thons in Shubert Alley, between 44th and 45th streets between Broadway and Eighth Avenue in New York's theater district. The event has grown to the point that more than 20 animal shelters attend. Broadway celebrities present the animals for adoption.
Children's book
Besides doing concerts, Peters is most occupied this year with promoting a children's book she wrote to help shelter animals. On the advice of her editor, she also wrote a song that will be included as a CD with the book, to be published by Blue Apple Press. Peters imagined writing a lullaby that the little girl in the story sings to a dog called Kramer, who gets adopted. (Peters herself has an adopted dog named Kramer, named after the Seinfeld character, she said, ''because he slid into the room and his hair was crazy.'')
Writing a song intimidated Peters at first.
''I thought, I'm not going to write it, because I have too much respect for composers,'' she said.
But on a plane ride home from an engagement, a song came into her head, music and lyrics at the same time.
''I turned to my assistant, who was next to me, and said, 'Listen to this!' She said, 'Did you just write that?' I said yes, and I (won't) remember it — that's why I'm singing it to you!' '' Peters' voice rises and her New York accent becomes more pronounced as she gets more excited, reliving the story.
Peters went home and sang the song into a tape recorder so it wouldn't get away. The finished product was arranged by Laird. They'll perform it at the Cleveland concert.
There's a comfort level in working with a pro who has also worked with stars like Cher and Diana Ross, Peters said. ''The thing is, he's a beautiful pianist and accompanist, so I can just sit and do piano vocals with him. And he understands my breathing when he conducts the orchestra. So I always take him with me. You definitely need to have someone who understands what you do,'' she said.
Also on the show, Peters will sing standards like Rodgers and Hammerstein's One Enchanted Evening as well as Fever (made famous by Peggy Lee) and the American folk song Shenandoah. She'll also perform When You Wish Upon a Star, which she sang in honor of Walt Disney at Disney Hall in Los Angeles.
Speaking of wishes, Peters is happy with how her own life has gone, she said. She grew up in a protective family, with strong values. Fear of getting into trouble helped her grow up right, she jokes. She got through the wild 1960s unscathed by drugs, since she was never interested in them.
''It was never my thing to feel free that way. I was never attracted to it. I was very lucky,'' Peters said.
Success has come in many forms, from Tony Awards for Song and Dance and for Annie Get Your Gun and multiple Tony nominations, including one for her role of Dot, the romantic interest of painter Georges Seurat in the Broadway musical Sunday in the Park With George, a 1984 musical shown on PBS in 1986.
Just the night before this interview, Stephen Sondheim took Peters to see the Broadway revival of Sunday in the Park With George, which he had created with James Lapine, who wrote the book.
''I always loved my experience and I always knew I was blessed to be in that show, but I always wondered, what was the audience experiencing? Because they would come back in tears. So I finally could be on that end of it,'' Peters said.
Sitting with the composer, Peters said, the songs struck her just as when she had sung them more than 20 years ago.
Sondheim always works out the intention of the song when he writes it, Peters said. For example, in the musical Sweeney Todd, now a movie, when Mrs. Lovett sings the song The Worst Pies in London, she's killing a cockroach or bug on the beat. And you've got to do it on the beat, or you won't catch up.
In addition to her work with Broadway Barks, Peters is doing a benefit for a group called Standing Tall, a school for severely challenged children who need assistance with basic functions such as walking and speaking. Friends of Peters and her late husband, Michael Wittenberg, founded the school.
Anything on her wish list? The idea of doing a play appeals to Peters, but she's happy to let things just keep developing naturally, as they always have for her. Being involved in worthwhile causes and doing what she does best are what keep this versatile performer going.
Elaine Guregian can be reached at 330-996-3574 or eguregian@thebeaconjournal.com
