STAGE REVIEW : That Was Some Enchanted Evening at the Hollywood Bowl

Here’s to the ladies who last--aren’t they too much?

The gentlemen also were terrific at Monday night’s “Broadway at the Bowl� benefit for the Music Center Opera Company. Tommy Tune hoofed. Michael Feinstein crooned. Emcee Placido Domingo sang “Some Enchanted Evening� in the Ezio Pinza version. (“Who can esplain it, who can tell you why?�) Ah, but into whose eyes was Domingo looking? Mary Martin’s.

There was the story, friends. The benefit business was a cover. This was a convocation of the golden girls, the wise women of the Broadway tribe.

Martin. Carol Channing, with diamonds. Bea Arthur (speaking of “Golden Girls�). Elaine Stritch. Dolores Gray, for God’s sake. Where has she been all these years? (London, where she is starring in “Follies.�)

The temptation is to say that these people have forgotten more about musical-comedy performance than the new crowd will ever know. But that wouldn’t be fair to the new crowd, from whom we also heard--Melba Moore, Michelle Nicastro and, especially, Patti LuPone. From her “Blow, Gabriel, Blow,� LuPone is on the verge of joining the inner circle.

Ah, but our girls are the inner circle. And they have forgotten nothing. Note how Bea Arthur was able to command the last few bars of “Fifty Per Cent� (from “Ballroom�), although they were actually being carried by the orchestra. Arthur has never claimed to be a great singer, but she knows how to discipline a song.

Or notice how Gray worked all sides of the house in “I’m Still Here,� her signature number from “Follies.�

This is a song about a lady who has had her ups and her downs in show biz, with a special emphasis on the downs. Would she have missed one minute of it? Hell, lots of them.

But “I got through all of last year . . . and I’m here.� Any questions? None. “Follies� flopped at the Shubert the first time, but Dolores Gray wasn’t in it.

If Gray was tough, how about Elaine Stritch? Stritch opened with “Broadway Baby� (also from “Follies�--are we getting some kind of message?) and came back later to do her signature tune, “The Ladies Who Lunch� from “Company.�

This is the ultimate three-martini song (does anyone still drink martinis?) and Stritch was absolutely deadly as she cut down all the nice little women of her acquaintance and then went on to the bitches, especially herself.

“Ladies Who Lunch� is fine just with piano, but when you slip the original Jonathan Tunic orchestration under it, it really lifts off. Musical director Robert Billig had found each show’s original orchestrations, or reasonable facsimiles of them, and each lady could easily imagine herself back at the Majestic or the St. James.

Carol Channing still makes “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend� sound bawdy. Since Channing is out there working every day, that’s not news. It is news that Mary Martin still makes “My Heart Belongs to Daddy� sound bawdy.

Martin did it in the original 1938 staging, sitting on a trunk, wrapped in white fur. For the first chorus, one can believe that the girl in the song doesn’t understand what the words mean. Then it becomes clear that you, the listener, are the naif .

This is conveyed with perfect daintiness, the Martin hallmark. Then we had a reprise of Martin’s Nellie Forbush in “South Pacific,� stuck like a dope with a thing called hope. And then the twin soliloquy from that show, with Domingo playing DeBeque, the planter. Domingo, a little nervous in Pinza’s shoes, went off pitch. Not Martin.

“Broadway at the Bowl� was also something of a tribute to the late Michael Bennett. Michelle Lee did a number from “Seesaw� and Kelly Bishop, Nancy Lane and Kay Cole sang “At the Ballet� as affectingly as they had in “A Chorus Line.� The staging here was just enough: director-choreographer Jeff Calhoun understood what can and can’t be done on a simple stage with limited rehearsal time.

After intermission, we had Domingo and Gloria Estefan in a preview of a new musical theater piece by Maury Yeston, based on the life and loves of Goya, his loves more than his life, it seemed, but the lyrics didn’t project very clearly. They should have called in Elaine Stritch.

‘BROADWAY AT THE BOWL’

An all-star benefit for the Music Center Opera Company at Hollywood Bowl. Executive producer Allan Carr. Musical director and conductor Robert Billig. Director and choreographer Jeff Calhoun. With Tommy Tune, Michael Feinstein, Carol Channing, Melba Moore, Kelly Bishop, Nancy Lane, Kay Cole, Michelle Nicastro, Dolores Gray, Patti LuPone, Elaine Stritch, Mary Martin and Placido Domingo. Followed by Maury Yeston’s “Goya,� with Domingo and Gloria Estefan.

Attendance: 17,729.