Review: Betty Buckley's RANDOM NOTES Cast a Spell at Joe's Pub

Actress and singer Betty Buckley is best known for the movie Carrie, Cats on Broadway, and Eight Is Enough on television. She has been a star for as long as this writer can remember. (I was fortunate enough to have cool parents who took us to everything. We saw her as Martha Washington in 1776, circa 1969.)

Joe’s Pub has been Buckley’s musical home for some years. She returned to Joe’s Pub over the weekend for six performances of her newest show, Random Notes, with carefully curated and often surprising songs by poets and singer-songwriters.

Buckley had at her command the excellent quartet of pianist and musical director Christian Jacob, guitarist Jordan Peters, bassist Tony Marino, and percussionist Keita Ogawa.

A fine singer and a consummate storyteller, Buckley has the ability to pull the audience into her world using her acting skills, her expressive eyes, the emotion in her beautiful voice, and the timing that comes from a lifetime of mesmerizing audiences.

This writer attended the late set of the first night. The fairly full audience included some entertainment royalty, including Patricia Clarkson and James Lapine. Buckley, taking a stool next to the piano, opened the set with a breezy, upbeat “I Can See It” (Harvey Schmidt/Tom Jones) from The Fantasticks. The star engaged warmly with the audience, sometimes calling out friends and familiar faces, or singing directly to them. (At times, it actually felt like she was singing directly to me as well, which might be part of her magic.)

Buckley really brought the infield in, so to speak, with Mary Chapin Carpenter’s “Come On, Come On,” imploring us with the title as a sort of mantra. On Leon Russell’s “This Masquerade,” a reimagining of the George Benson jazz standard stripped it down to the passion and angst of the story. Jordan Peters lifted this arrangement higher by making his guitar sing, and the juxtaposition of his exquisite playing against Buckley’s delivery made this a show highlight.

The star chose an obscure but excellent song, “The Man I Used to Love” (Susan Werner), a bluesy, jazzy piece that had a vibe of Peggy Lee’s “Fever” if it married Van Morrison’s “Moondance.”

Another set highlight was a pairing of pianist Christian Jacob’s instrumental “Gentle By Nature” and Sara Bareilles’ “Enough,” from Bareilles’ upcoming musical, The Interestings. Buckley heard Bareilles perform the song and was so moved she emailed Bareilles for permission to record it. Buckley’s official live version from this evening is available on YouTube here. “Enough” is also the title of Buckley’s new album. The long, gorgeous piano intro sets up “Enough,” which Buckley sang with just Jacob.

A swell moment came with the surprising choice of “Volare” (Domenico Modugno/Franco Migliacci). This Italian and English pop song was one of Buckley’s late mother’s favorite songs, and one of Buckley’s since the age of 10. She has been studying Italian of late and amusingly begged for forgiveness if she did not quite land the pronunciation when she sang part of the song in Italian. (Interestingly, the Italian lyrics to this song are strung in lights over Mulberry Street in Little Italy.) Knowing this is one of those songs everyone knows, she invited a singalong.

Peters’ long, ethereal, and completely solo guitar work led to Mary Chapin Carpenter’s “I Am a Town,” an evocative list song that painted a picture of the kind of town most New Yorkers only know from movies, though one the Big Spring, Texas native would certainly recognize.

Buckley, as always, was generous with her musicians, giving all of them opportunities to shine. For the closing song, Keita Ogawa set up Joni Mitchell’s “Woman of Heart and Mind” with an intoxicating drum solo that utilized only tom-tom mallets, while Buckley moved her chair next to the drum set to revel in his performance.

A standing ovation after this number garnered a surprising finale of “Won’t You Be My Neighbor” (Fred Rogers), the theme song of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. Jacob’s arrangement revealed unexpected layers to this seemingly simple song, pairing its feel-good lyrics and melody with minor-key undertones. And who would not want to be Buckley’s neighbor after hearing this?

This was a magical and delicious evening with Betty Buckley. She was in good voice, with a diverse and wonderful set list of gems. There was nothing to quibble with, aside from her need to frequently glance at lyrics, which did not detract from her interpretation or delivery.

For more information about Betty Buckley, visit https://www.bettybuckley.com. For more great shows at Joe’s Pub, visit https://publictheater.org/joes-pub.