Magic Castle Cabaret: Broadway’s Rachel York dazzles a star-studded crowd with her astonishing talent

What I wanna know is this: How is Rachel York not the biggest star on the planet?

I swear, watching her cabaret show Monday night at The Magic Castle in Hollywood was ;probably the best live performance by a singer that I have ever seen and I’ve seen Sarah Brightman, Patti LuPone and, yup, Barbra Streisand. Her talent is so astonishing with a range that I did not know a single human being could possess.

Realize this is me trying to reel myself in.

Miss York is best known for her roles in the Broadway productions of City of Angels, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Les Miserables, Victor/Victoria, Kiss Me Kate, Sly Fox and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and the national tour of Camelot. She also has many on-screen credits with the most famous being her portrayal of Lucille Ball in the CBS biopic Lucy.

She performed the second of her two-night run at The Castle before a star-studded crowd that included the legendary actresses Betty Garrett and Tippi Hedren, Desperate Housewives producer Marc Cherry, actor Tuc Watkins of Housewives and One Life to Live, actress Kate Linder of The Young and the Restless, and actor Roland Kickinger who was in the most recent Terminator: Salvation movie.

I was seated next to Miss Hedren (I’m pictured above with her and Mr. Kickinger) so my night was made the moment I arrived. The star of the classic Hitchcock films The Birds and Marnie is so lovely and I enjoyed whispering to each other between songs. We were mostly just gushing about Rachel saying things like “Amazing!” and “Oh my God!”

[I also relished the opportunity to share a story with Tippi. Last month at the Tony Awards party in LA, I was waiting to interview Chita Rivera when I looked back and saw Miss Hedren arrive. She is a still-gorgeous 79 years old and when I saw her gracefully and expertly make her way up a flight of stairs, holding the front of her gown up just so. I thought: “Now that’s a star.” I’m so glad I got to tell her that. She joked that she had practiced going up those stairs earlier in the day.]

Okay, back to Rachel York. From the moment she entered from the back of the room and made her way up to the stage singing Don’t Rain on My Parade, I was smitten. You already knew she had the pipes. Then you found out that she had great humor, terrific energy, and can do letter-perfect imitations of such stars as Julie Andrews, Liza Minnelli (the absolute highlight), Marilyn Monroe, Shirley Bassey, Streisand and a little bit of Cher.

“Music has brought me joy ever since I was a little girl and artists like Judy Garland, Ella Fitzgerald, and, of course, Barbra Streisand have been some of my greatest inspirations,” she told the crowd. “…I feel like I owe a lot to Barbra because so many of the songs that she chose to sing are about overcoming incredible odds so her music really helped get me through my early struggling years in New York which were pretty tough for a 19 year old, all alone, who didn’t know anything or anyone. …”

She did tender love songs like He Touched Me, a sensational Burt Bacharach medley that included bits of just about every one of his hits and blew us  away with power ballads My Heart Will Go On, Maybe This Time, Those Were the Days and Defying Gravity.

The stories in between were pretty good too, including how she broke through: “One day I got my big break in a Tony Award winning musical called City of Angels. When I auditioned for the show, I was told they were looking for a Marilyn Monroe type so [in a perfect Marilyn voice] I did my best to give them what they want and I made my big Broadway debut, live on a bed – naked! Mommy was so proud.”

It was absolute heaven. I attended the after-party and got to chat with Rachel a little bit and tell her that I think she can walk on water. [I’m going to save her hilarious Liza Minnelli and Julie Andrews anecdotes for tomorrow but I’ll just tell you this: this woman could be a stand-up comedian if she wanted to be.]

Rachel told me: ‘I like to mix it up, I like to do a lot of different things. I get bored with one job.

Since Tuc Watkins (pictured with me, above) and Marc Cherry were at the next table, got to gab with them before the show which is always nice. Marc already knew Rachel and she actually performed at a fundraising party he had at his house.

I asked them and others to give me little reviews of Rachel’s performance as we munched on appetizers at the after-party.

Marc Cherry: “I thought she was brilliant. I know her personally and I was sitting there absolutely stunned at what an amazing mimic she was. I knew she could sing the heck out of stuff but I had no idea she had that whole other talent. The Liza [Minnelli] was devastating. And the Julie Andrews, the Marilyn Monroe. Everything about it was just fantastic.”

Tuc Watkins:“There are so many different things about her that are beautiful. She’s such an articulate singer. I’m not very adept at hearing lyrics when most people sing, for some reason they get by me. But she was so articulate that I heard everything that she was saying., felt everything she was saying. She’s just gorgeous – every single thing about her. It was amazing. I haven’t seen a lot of cabaret in my time, but if it was going to be like this, I’d see more.”

Betty Garrett: “She just blew me away, that’s all. We did My One and Only for Reprise! a couple of years ago and we just fell in love with each other then. I just love her, she’s so wonderful.”

PHOTOS By BRIAN PUTNAM PHOTOGRAHY-– Thanks Brian!!!

Go to RACHELYORK>COM to learn more about this fabulous talent.

VIDEO BONUS: Sadly, last night’s show was not taped that I know of. So here is footage of Rachel performing I Hate Men from the musical Kiss Me Kate.