Rebecca Luker

Rebecca Luker’s instantaneous ascent to the top ranks of cabaret singers, in her one-week nightclub debut at Feinstein’s this past December, was a joyful surprise. A comely Southern belle with honey-toned hair and a voice like fresh peaches and cream, Luker was the soprano-ingenue of choice during the revival fad that kept Broadway alive in the 1990s, playing the (similarly named) leading roles of Magnolia in Show Boat (1994), Maria in The Sound of Music (1998) and Marian in The Music Man (2000). But although Luker always sang gorgeously, her acting often tasted of artificial sweetening. It was obvious that she had the whole package, but less clear was what was inside.

Luker’s gifts were on generous display in her December set, dedicated to songs by women lyricists and composers; rapturously reviewed, the show now returns for an encore engagement. Following the example of fellow Broadway soprano Barbara Cook (who played Magnolia and Marian decades earlier), Luker has maintained her voice’s meltingly beautiful tone while extending the depth and variety of her interpretation; gracefully spanning decades of music, her program ranges from the transporting romance of the Jerome Kern–Dorothy Fields gem “The Way You Look Tonight” and the wry disappointment of Kay Swift and Paul James’s “Can’t We Be Friends” to the neurotic comedy of Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich’s “The Last Song.” As she expands her persona from wholesome to whole, the princess of revivals is finally coming into her own.—Adam Feldman