Review: Donna McKechnie's 'Visit' with Kander & Ebb Falls Short of Expectations at Feinstein's/54 Below

Donna McKechnie met Matt Dengler and Emily Mechler on the 2015 Broadway production of John Kander and Fred Ebb's The Visit. McKechnie was standby for the show's star, Chita Rivera (who currently has a show at Café Carlyle featuring some of this same material) Dengler and Mechler understudied "everyone else." The three would hang out together in an upstairs dressing room during performance. "I have a hard time saying goodbye, so instead I said, let's do a show," says McKechnie, who became a star during 1975's A Chorus Line.

Ninety percent of the way through her new Feinstein's/54 Below show, A Visit With Kander and Ebb, McKechnie delivers the unquestioned highlight of this show, "I Walk Away" (The Visit), wherein the character Claire Zachanassian ruefully explains how she accrued her fortune through the deaths of successive husbands. Phrasing is superb, vocal confident, acting strong. A few connective songs later, we watch Claire's brief pas de deux with her younger self, here played by Ms. Mechler, just as it was choreographed for the show. When you're young/Feeling oh so strong/What can prove you wrong?/Love, and love alone . . . McKechnie sings as poignant epilogue.

Unfortunately, while the show's finale "Yes!" (70, Girls, 70) is appealing for vivacity and notable lack of pretense, nothing else comes close to this satisfying parenthesis. While group numbers are jauntily staged with in-unison gestures and footwork, none stand out for the right reasons. "I Would Never Leave You" (The Visit) finds the young performers playing Claire's eunuchs with so much exaggeration, they look and sound as if they're parodying characters who must be portrayed deadpan in order to "get" the satire. "In the Same Boat" (Curtains), which should be as light and breezy as Gertie Lawrence and Noel Coward material, lands heavily despite deft music hall arrangement by Musical Director/pianist Ian Herman.

Both Dengler and Mechlor, who are given solos, mug every emotion and consistently sing loudly in complete disregard of lyrical intention. During one of McKechnie's turns, Melchlor, in half light, upstages the star with physical positions that reflect the song, rather than attentively listening. Volume is an issue throughout. McKechnie's "A Quiet Thing" (Flora the Red Menace) has never so denied its title. The show needs a strong director.

Donna McKechnie's A Visit With Kander & Ebb continues tonight at Feinstein's/54 Below at 7 pm.

Photos by Maryann Lopinto

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