By Bart Greenberg***Sharing a tale of second chances, Rachel Matz Hunter returned to New York City after a long absence, performing Take Two at Don’t Tell Mama. She brought with her, high energy, taste, intelligence and a great set of songs, mostly drawn from Br
oadway shows. The musical theater character actress, in the grand tradition of Marilyn Cooper, Jackie Hoffman and her own director Faith Prince, quickly won her audience over with her personality and her clarion voice, and then surprised them with a depth of soul in the darker aspects of her story.
After an overly-aggressive opening number: a blending of “Yes” (John Kander, Fred Ebb) and “A Cockeyed Optimist” (Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II), the proceedings settled down with a beautifully-acted and staged “Colored Lights” (Kander, Ebb). With that reflective number, the story really began, taking us back to her earliest musical career as a high school performer delivering numbers with gusto that were far beyond her emotional understanding: (“Hello 12, Hello 13” (Marvin Hamlisch, Ed Kleeban), “Fame” (Michael Gore, Dean Pritchford) and “What I Did for Love” (Hamlisch, Kleeban). The the major medleys throughout the show (presumably the work of music director Bobby Peaco) were smart and dramatically satisfying. These 
mash-ups were interspersed with illuminating patter that kept Hunter firmly in the center of the show while propelling the tale forward. A very funny “Like a Virgin” (Tom Kelly, Billy Steinberg), with adapted lyrics, detailed her early attempts at romance.
One of the charms of the evening was that not every song was a standard. In discussing her continued romantic issues, Hunter utilized the very funny “A Hundred Easy Ways to Lose a Man” (Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden and Adolph Green), which she delivered with great timing, and then blended it with the title tune from the film of Funny Girl (Jule Styne, Bob Merrill). The combination of humor and poignancy was dramatically very compelling. A later blend of “Baby Mine” (Frank Churchill, Ed Washington) and “Not While I’m Around” (Stephen Sondheim), brought out the singer’s tender side as she discussed the birth of her son.
She sang a powerful “Empathy” (Joel Waggoner) about the devastating end of her marriage. But Hunter moved forward: “After Today” (Leslie Bricusse), “A Lot of Livin’ to Do” (Charles Strouse, Lee Adams) and “I Want It All” (Robert Maltby Jr., David 
Shire)). She relocated to Florida and eventually, thanks to J-Date (where she used the headline in her profile that became the title of this show), she found herself a nice Jewish doctor. Hunter hesitated to get too deeply involved after her first relationship (the ingeniously utilized “Marry Me a Little/Being Alive” (Stephen Sondheim), but of course there was a happy ending.
For an encore, Hunter celebrated her successful return to the musical stage in 2023, (as Yentle at The Wick ) with a medley of songs from the show, before returning to “Yes,” this time delivered in character as the Matchmaker (Prince famously pulled off the same trick in her club act when as Miss Adelaide she rendered “Something Wonderful” (Rodgers, Hammerstein). This number was a delicious way to end this very moving evening.
Photos by Bart Greenberg
