Review: Lucie Arnaz I GOT THE JOB! at 54 Below Plays All Her Songs

It’s been four years since Lucie Arnaz was on the stage at 54 Below.  A lot has changed in four years.  There was a hiatus, in show business and in life, there was a name change at Broadway’s Living Room, there were grandchildren born and hair color changed, and there were changes in attitudes and life philosophies, thanks to the aforementioned hiatus.  But some things didn’t change, and one of the things that didn’t change was the magic to be found when sitting in the seats out front and watching Lucie Arnaz perform her musical memoir cabaret I GOT THE JOB!  Actually, it did change: it got better.

Subtitled SONGS FROM MY MUSICAL PAST, Lucie Arnaz’s nightclub act is a one-act play, the like of which gets filmed for streaming services or DVD release.  We’ve all seen a variety of these one-person shows that played small venues from nightclub stages to black box theaters - they open, they play to a demographic of devotees who love theatrical history, who have a healthy respect for nostalgia, who acknowledge the importance of not throwing away an artist, an entertainer, a person just because they are not still of this moment.  The one that comes, most readily, to the mind of this writer is The Life of Reilly, a film version of Save It For The Stage, a one-man theater piece written and performed by Broadway veteran and television icon Charles Nelson Reilly about his life in the business of show.  Lucie Arnaz has crafted just such a theater piece and potential documentary film (#bighint) with I GOT THE JOB!  Lucie Arnaz is an important and valuable thread in the history of show business.  She has touched many lives through her performances on screen (during last night’s show there was a burst of applause when she referenced the Charleston and Ginger Rogers), on Broadway (tears were wiped away last night by the people hearing “They’re Playing Our Song” again after seeing the play some forty-five years ago), and inside of the family homestead (some of her best anecdotes involve advice from dad, Desi Arnaz, and encouragement from mom, Lucille Ball, who built the kids a stage in the garage, to put on plays).  Lucie Arnaz might be well-known for her famous parents and her ardent work preserving their history, but Lucie Arnaz is her own woman and her own artist.  This show is solid proof-positive of that, and it is a show that demands to be seen.

And last night, it was seen.

The basement at 54 Below is often sold out.  But the basement at 54 Below rarely looks THIS sold out.  There were so many people packed in at the club last night that it was almost impossible to see the celebrities in the room, which is always one of the thrills of a night at 54 Below.  Almost impossible.  Christine Andreas and Martin Silvestri enjoyed a meal and some chat with The Sorokoffs.  KT Sullivan and Richard Holbrook socialized with patrons before and after the show.  Rex Reed and Lucie Arnaz exchanged some reminiscences during the performance.  And Michele Lee was resplendent, beaming with pride from the center chair on the banquette.  Everyone wanted to see Lucie Arnaz, and she held their rapt attention, even in the quietest moments, as she shared these treasures of stories from her history on the stage (even off, as one of the segments was a gloriously heartwarming number from Hazel: A Musical Maid In America, which Lucie directed but did not appear in).  With her immaculately penned script and Musical Director Ron Abel’s astounding arrangements (the “Out of My Dreams” and “Nice Work If You Can Get It” treatments are particularly impressive), Lucie took her audience on an extremely generous outing of ninety minutes of storytelling - and it has to be said:  this IS storytelling.  If you took all the songs out of I Got The Job (please don’t do that), you would still have a great play because Lucie is a born storyteller, and she has lived the stories she tells, so they just slip off of her tongue with the natural rhythms of her speech pattern, with the humorous highs and gentle lows required to put the visions in our heads and the emotions in our hearts.  Then Lucie layers in the musical offerings she and Ron have meticulously curated, opting for not-so-obvious choices from musicals like Seesaw and The Witches of Eastwick that demonstrate the depth of Lucie’s acting abilities.  You really don’t know how difficult it is to act one song after another until you see somebody do it like Lucie Arnaz.

When a nightclub performer has fourteen songs to perform in an hour and a half, and the songs represent different characters in different plays, the actor has to be willing and able to take a leap into a pocketful of emotion and characteristics, in order to communicate the person they are playing and the story they are telling, while completely out of the context.  That’s Lucie Arnaz.  Last night there were discernible differences with each new number, as, first, Annie Oakley appeared before our very eyes, and, later, Mabel Normand.  Miss Edith Herbert had a kind of emotional breakdown and Sonia Walsk survived her biggest breakup - and all within a matter of minutes as Lucie stepped out of one pocket and into another.  Each song is as a Polaroid coming to life, and Lucie Arnaz is the photographer, the framer, and the gallery owner, presenting the most gorgeous artwork possible.  Nowhere is it more apparent than in her devastatingly glorious performance of “Loose Ends” from The Witches of Eastwick, some of the most immaculate cabaret storytelling a person is ever likely to see, anywhere.  The truth is that Lucie Arnaz is special, and she always has been.  The good news is that Lucie has just gotten better with time (the new silver hair is especially fetching), as she collects more stories to tell and more insight into how to tell those stories.  The remembrances of Neil Simon and the audition for “They’re Playing Our Song” and of sage advice from Marvin Hamlish are gold, and an impression of Sir Cameron Mackintosh is comedy in a bag, and the details outlined of her earliest shows, like Annie Get Your Gun on a waterfront, and her latest shows, like Pippin from the air, are all fodder for joy, and maybe a life lesson along the way.

It may have taken four years to get Lucie Arnaz back onto the 54 Below stage but they are four years that were well worth the wait.  Hopefully, it won’t be quite so long, next time, but, definitely, we will be willing to wait again… however long it takes.  

Lucie Arnaz I GOT THE JOB!  SONGS FROM MY MUSICAL PAST WITH MUSIC DIRECTOR Ron Abel plays 54 Below through July 19th.  For information and reservations visit the 54 Below website HERE.

THIS is the Lucie Arnaz website.

HERE is where you can read about Ron Abel online.

Photos by Stephen Mosher

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