Rita Gardner: Try to Remember

Rita Gardner, who in 1960 originated the role of the Girl (a.k.a. Luisa) in Off Broadway’s The Fantasticks, began presenting this one-woman show in 2002 and kept it going until not long before her death in 2022. With good reason, as this CD produced by Barry Kleinbort reveals.

Gardner's voice, like her talent, wouldn’t quit, and she could glide across those girlish numbers from The Fantasticks convincingly 40-plus years later.

Said Bruce Eder: “With Alex Rybeck's deft piano accompaniment and a beguiling persona—witty and charmingly self-deprecating, but always warm—she soars across several decades’ worth of musical theater history, all the while recalling the Off Broadway world and her colleagues from the 1950s to the start of the 21st century.

“Gardner is frequently funny and occasionally poignant in her reminiscences. The repertoire ranges from Jones & Schmidt to Kurt Weill, Jerome Moross, Marvin Hamlisch, David Shire and Jacques Brel, including a few unexpected choices that enliven the proceedings even further.”

Track List 

1    The Fantasticks: Opening: Much More and I Can See It
2    Welcome
3    Nightcap: No Tune Like a Show Tune
4    Nightcap: Your Good Morning
5    Parade: Your Hand in Mine
6    Off-Broadway Medley
7    The Threepenny Opera: Mack the Knife
8    The Golden Apple: Lazy Afternoon
9    Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris: Carousel
10    Larry Hagman
11    Hair: Initials
12    Lorraine Hansbury
13    Dames at Sea: It's You
14    Starting Here, Starting Now: I Don't Remember Christmas
15    Colette Collage: I Miss You
16    A Chorus Line: What I Did for Love
17    Taking My Turn: Taking My Turn
18    The Fantasticks
19    The Fantasticks: Try to Remember/They Were You
20    Colette Collage: Joy
21    Playoff