Lilith's a babe.
If you're into stern women, you already had your loins in a knot over the portrayer of Frasier Crane's acid-witted, serrated-tongued ex.
For the rest of us, it's the flip side of the uptight TV shrink—the top-flight stage chanteuse—that makes Bebe Neuwirth such a multitalented treat for the eyes and, particularly, the ears, even if she rarely strayed from the microphone at her April 22 concert, her dynamic dancing with its Fosse-esque angularity absent from an otherwise entertaining evening.
Marking her first visit to Vegas—as either headliner or tourist—the Emmy-(for Lilith) and Tony-(for Chicago) winner left an audience at Artemus Ham Hall smitten by her sweet persona and sassy performance in an all-too-brief, 80-minute one-woman show.
Bathed in balmy red lighting and backed by a robust orchestra comprised almost entirely of UNLV students ("I'm old enough to be most of these people's mother, which in some cases is a shame," she joked), the 47-year-old Neuwirth, wrapped in a simple black dress, brought Broadway Bebe to town in a set list of Kurt Weill songs dovetailing with the catalog of John Kander and Fred Ebb (composers of Chicago and Cabaret).
Laying a foundation of familiarity so the crowd would later follow her into more adventurous musical terrain, Neuwirth opened with her signature piece, sashaying to the rhythmically lewd insinuations of "All That Jazz," with its speakeasy come-ons ("I know a whoopie spot, where the gin is cold and the pi-an-o's hot") and brassy barrelhouse vibe.
Between spurts of charming chitchat and sips from a water bottle to ward off Vegas-throat, Neuwirth segued to the clever suggestiveness of "Saga of Jenny" and "Stranger Here Myself." A tribute to late Broadway legend Jerry Orbach introduced "Razzle Dazzle 'Em," written especially for Orbach, the original Billy Flynn in Chicago, from which Neuwirth also delivered the bored-housewife-turned-homicidal-hottie monologue of the callously opportunistic "Roxie," set against Kander and Ebb's intoxicating bassline vamp, a crescendo of sexual heat for a murdering cheat.
Highlights abounded, from the ruefully funny "Class" ("No one says oops when they pass gas—whatever happened to class?") and the reflective loveliness of "A Quiet Thing" and French ballad "Je ne t'aime pas," to the happiness-to-heartbreak shadings of "How Lucky Can You Get," and Kander and Ebb touchstones "Cabaret" and "Mein Herr," the latter's locomotive pulse gaining speed until it was hurtling down the orchestra's percussive tracks.
A standing-O brought Neuwirth back for the rousing encore, "Ring Them Bells," plus two more encore-less curtain calls, leaving some disappointed admirers, as the sage saying goes, wanting more—more of both the witty, gorgeously melodic songs that, sadly, remain largely unsung nowadays, and the winsome interpreter who so passionately sings them.