Review:
Charmed by Channing at Proctor's
Judith White, For The Saratogian 03/28/2006

Schenectady - Carol Channing sang those lines more than 5,000 times as Dolly Levi in the original Broadway and touring productions of "Hello, Dolly!" but the lyrics have never seemed more appropriate than on Sunday at Proctor's Theatre, when the 85-year old entertainer delivered the song yet again in her one-of-a-kind voice.

An icon of stage, screen and television, the "old girl" was in remarkable form in Schenectady, performing her 90-minute, one-woman show, "The First 80 Years Are the Hardest: The Carol Channing Experience."

The show earned Channing a Back Stage Bistro Award for her engagement last fall at Feinstein's at the Regency in New York.

The Proctor's event also gave Channing and her husband of three years, Harry Kullijian, the opportunity to plug their recently launched Dr. Carol Channing Endowment for the Arts, a major effort begun after the entertainer was awarded an honorary doctor of fine arts degree in 2004 from California Sate University Stanislaus. Diamonds may be a girl's best friend, but the arts' new best friends are Dr. Channing and her charming new husband - who actually was her "steady" beau when the pair were still in junior high.

(The pair hadn't seen each other for 70 years after that youthful romance, until he learned she had written about him in her published memoir.)

"I thought she was dead," he confessed to the audience during his cameo appearance on the stage Sunday. "I thought HE was dead; he's a year older," Channing deadpanned, topping him.

Channing also will receive the National Humor Treasure Award from the Humor Project, headed by Saratoga's Joel Goodman. At Proctor's on Sunday, Channing greeted a nearly full-house audience wearing her signature, singular wide smile, accessorized with a red silk, rhinestone-buttoned pantsuit. Gone are the batty false eyelashes and bouffant platinum hairstyle that marked her "dumb blonde" image of the 1960s and '70s, replaced by a lovely white-haired, wide-eyed, classy lady.

She no longer wears gowns slit to the top of her thighs, but her fabulous, slim-hipped figure still gives evidence that Channing was - and still is - a talented dancer.

Channing's show included stories of her career spiked with right-on impressions of the big-name stars with whom she's shared a stage.

Her own voice and style may be among the most popular for comedians to mimic, but she can trade that distinctive voice of her own to belt out a mean "Some of These Days" a la Sophie Tucker, or to offer a perfect Tallulah Bankhead laugh tinged with lunacy. Ethel Merman barking out orders, a long-toothed Brit who swallowed his words, and a would-be starlet whistling through every whisper of the letter "s" were among the old friends she brought to life.

Mining her own legendary Broadway roles, Channing hushed the audience with Dolly Levi's soul-strengthening soliloquy and sang "Before the Parade Passes By," both from Jerry Herman's "Hello, Dolly!"

Incredible diction, great delivery and understated gestures and movements show Channing's expertise now, as throughout her career.

A single, tiny pelvic thrust told all that was needed about that not-entirely-sweet Lorelei Lee as Channing sang "Little Girl from Little Rock," and just a few small gestures seemed to dress the singer in jewels and furs during "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend." Both tunes are from Channing's first Broadway hit, "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" (Styne, Robin).

Understatement and timing were Channing's tools in this performance, along with wide-eyed, blank looks that stood as perfect statements, and she used them masterfully. Video clips from her films and televisions specials were shown before the live performance, and attested to Channing's classy ability to sell via suggestion, rather than resorting sexual nuance or slapstick.

And here on Sunday it was the same: minute shoulder movements were all the shimmy this octogenarian needed to give the appropriate jazz-age attitude to her encore number, "Razzle Dazzle," and a simple soft-shoe routine with her new husband sent her off the stage - a classy, warm closing by a classy ageless talent.