By Marilyn Lester***One of the launching points of Andrea Bell Wolff’s Vegas Adventure at Don’t Tell Mama is an admission of age by the singer-actress. She just celebrated a birthday that’s quite a few decades beyond the year she spent adventuring in Las Vegas at age 19, and the bookended “today and then” premise was touching, courageous—and funny as all get-out. For those not offended by the stuff that stays in Vegas when it happens in Vegas, this is a show that delights and shows that a woman of a certain age still has plenty of “it.”
The conceit of this mini-musical was a diary rediscovered by Wolff in her attic with her birthday celebration about to begin downstairs. And so, reading from this personal history, away we went with Wolff, reliving that year of excitement with a petite perky performer (who’s just as delightful now as she must have been as a young one in Hello, Dolly! on Broadway). Older and wiser now? Of course, and that’s the conclusion of that Vegas learning experience. It was one heck of a wild ride in 1970, but full of lessons too. From the start of the show, with “I’m Playing Me” (Jeff Bowen) to the end of it with “Rainbow Sleeves” (Tom Waits), Wolff made her adventure come very much alive in a delightful “you were there” fashion.
Wolff is skilled at storytelling and putting together smart shows, so one of the highlights of Vegas Adventure is in how the songs, most of which are quite unusual/esoteric, so beautifully fit the narrative. She was aided in making these excellent song choices by talented Music Director and accompanist Jude Obermüller. Director Jimmy Larkin is also to be credited with working on the fine pacing and flow of the show with Wolff.
In deciding to leave New York, bored with sameness and longing for something very different, young Andrea landed a spot in the Bottoms Up revue—the kind of show where “Hot Dog Song” (Tausha Hammed, Clarance Williams) was de rigueur. This adult vaudeville show is still running, BTW! Sara Bareilles’ “Vegas” was the perfect tune to begin such an adventure with. Making a guest appearance and providing vocals during Vegas Adventure was Elliott Litherland, a young (and handsome) talent that handled props, contributed acting skills to the narrative, and who also added excellent vocal touches to the set list.
As one might expect from any young woman on her own in the midst of such exciting newness, there were attractions, boyfriends, unrequited loves and crushes. “Pretty Young Men” (Susan Birkenhead, Lucy Simon) and “Dance with Somebody” (Shannon Rubicam, George Merrill) spoke to those adventures, as did “Keep on Running” (Jackie Edwards), recorded by a major crush of Wolff’s, Grant Smith.
Not for nothing is Las Vegas called “Sin City.” Keep in mind that Wolff’s adventure took place in the Vegas of the mob and the Rat Pack, a far cry from the tamed-down family-oriented vacation destination it is now. There was definitely “Sex Education” (Suzanne Buhrer). This was also a time when it was OK for a young man to “sow his wild oats,” but not so much a young woman, one in show biz or not. Wolf’s intersection with Rusty Warren, often called the “mother of the sexual revolution,” was told with one of Warren’s most famous songs, “Bounce Your Boobies,” a hilarious “patriotic” tune that Wolff executed to perfection.
Alas, by the end of a year in Las Vegas, the then Andrea Bell, realized there’s no place like home, and that being the City of New York. She was at her most affecting in telling about the end of her adventure with “Clown” (Emeli Sandé, Shahid Khan,Grant Mitchell). Back in the now, it was time for Wolff to put away her diary and join the birthday party about to begin downstairs— celebrating the woman she’s become in 2021.
Finis—until this powerhouse of a performer plans her next foray onto the cabaret stage, one which will be most welcome. As for Vegas Adventure, it’s worthy of development into a show with more in the way of a set and enhancements that support its style as a mini-musical… and on a physically larger stage to showcase it.
Musically, Wolf was ably supported by bassist, Sam Zerna and percussionist, Doug Hinrichs.
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