“06880” culture correspondent Robin Moyer Chung reports:
Ana Gasteyer rocked the Westport Country Playhouse Monday night.
Her show “Sugar & Booze” — based on her holiday album of the same name — is touted as “an uproarious homage to Christmas albums of old” by Billboard.
The comedian, musician and actor — best known for her iconic send-ups of Martha Steward and Celine Dion on “Saturday Night Live” — interspersed comedy (“Hello Westport! … Did I pronounce that correctly?”) and songs she pointedly assures the audience are “seasonal secular songs with Santa.”
She did it hot on the heels of the “SNL: The Anniversary Special” (in which she revisited her famous characters), and the 20th anniversary of “Wicked” (in which she played Elphaba on Broadway).
As a treat, she threw into the song mix her restrained and passionate rendition of “Defying Gravity.”
Ana Gasteyer (Photo/Shervin Lainez)
It was an exuberant performance tempered by deadpan comic delivery, her red sequin shirt sparkling in the footlights like a holiday ornament, accompanied by 8 band members and her violin.
A fun bit: Halfway through the show the bandleader wandered into the audience with a bag of “white elephant” gifts (things Ana had ostensibly dragged out of her closet and couldn’t wait to get rid of).
To 3 excited winners — judged by the ridiculousness of their holiday attire — he gifted useless things like a green sparkly fringe sweater.
Like chocolate chips in the larger cookie of the Westport Country Playhouse season (Martha Stewart reference — get it?), these one-night shows mixed into larger ones offer glimpses of stunning, sometimes legendary talent. They include Mandy Patinkin who performed earlier this month
The show was, as her bare-breasted kitchen vixen once said, “a good thing.”
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