Liz Callaway: Show Tunes Made Easy

Liz Callaway kept things sweet and simple Friday night at the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater. The Broadway singer offered theater standards and 1960s pop hits, playing each melody straight and letting the limited jazz ornamentations come from her three-piece band.

You know this voice. Callaway's credits include the singing for such animated film characters as Anastasia and Princess Jasmine, and she was Grizabella in "Cats" for years on Broadway. Her vocal quality is high and pure, without noticeable quirks and with a solid reserve of power. Singing "Journey to the Past" from "Anastasia" or Paul Simon's "59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)," Callaway looked and sounded happy.

While that created a limited emotional range, nothing in the evening (part of the Barbara Cook's Spotlight series) was less than lovely. Callaway's musical theater numbers landed solidly, especially Stephen Sondheim's wistful "Not a Day Goes By" and Stephen Schwartz's rushing "Meadowlark." (The latter song, briskly sung, came across like an invigorating drive on an ocean highway.) Callaway's comic charm and lyrical precision were well-framed in the tart Richard Rodgers-Sondheim number, "What Do We Do? We Fly!," a 1963 barb at air travel that still sounds fresh today.

The 1960s pop material included "You Don't Own Me," Jimmy Webb's "Didn't We" and "The Beat Goes On," all sung with clarity and confidence. Callaway enlisted the willing audience to chime in with the chorus of "Downtown," even venturing into the seats for a verse or two.

Not that she ever really let her hair down. While Callaway has a gift for making things sound easy, a stiff version of "I Got Rhythm" revealed Callaway's preference, with music director Alex Rybeck, for keeping things close to the vest. Her encore came from the role she originated in the musical "Baby," and like "Meadowlark," it unleashed what Callaway does best: the earnest Broadway ballad, melodically direct and finished with command.

-- Nelson Pressley