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Still Daisy After All These Years is at its heart, a vanity show. It’s one person telling you about their own life, because they think they’re just so darned interesting, clever or talented you will want to know all about them in intimate detail. For me, and anyone not related to the performer, this kind of show usually falls flat. Generally, the person doing the telling isn’t nearly as interesting, clever or talented as their mother told them. Listen up and take note world – Daisy Eagan is as interesting, clever and talented as her mother told her – and then some.

 

For anyone who doesn’t know Daisy, she’s just a simple girl from an average family with a mundane life. NOT. Still Daisy After All These Years takes the audience along for the rollercoaster ride that is Daisy’s life. She shares everything from her humble beginnings as a bag of wool in a pre-school production of Baa Baa Black Sheep, through her completely unself-conscious (and apparently un-self-aware) meteoric rise to stardom when she became the youngest female performer to win a Tony (for her portrayal of Mary Lennox in The Secret Garden) and then through a no holds-barred look at a life that might have felled a lesser person.

This is an actress (a double threat, to hear her tell it) who is so comfortable, even with her own discomfort, that you can’t help but want more from her at every turn. Her honesty is astonishing. She also has a unique ability to illustrate the various points in her life by bringing you into those events in song. She makes you feel as though you are seeing her at that very moment in time. There she was as a child singing an audition song (“Somewhere Over the Rainbow”) at one moment, and then later as an adult woman with an informed version of the song that is partly responsible for putting her on the map, “Girl I Mean to Be” from The Secret Garden.

Daisy is all talent, all the time. Whether she’s talking about her life, or singing to express more about various moments in it, the show’s strength lies in the persona of its star. Her patter feels largely spontaneous, and while that serves Daisy well, there were moments that could have been tightened in order to strengthen some parts of the evening.

Musically, Daisy’s voice is richer and more vibrant than ever. She sings as she speaks, with perfect pitch, clarity and purpose. You won’t see the over-wrought vocal theatrics that so many think will pass for actual ability. Hers is an exhilaratingly pure voice.

In entertainment, there is wisdom in “leaving them wanting more,” and more is what you’ll want in a show from a musical performer who sings just seven songs in an evening. It wasn’t until after the show that I realized it was so few. But the set list is like the show itself: colorful, varied and satisfying. Her selections cover material from movies (“Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz, "I’ll Try” from Return to Neverland), Broadway (”Broadway Baby” from Follies, ”Where is Love/Neverland” from Oliver and Peter Pan respectively, ”I’m The Greatest Star” from Funny Girl, ”Fine, Fine Line” from Avenue Q and ”Girl I Mean to Be” from The Secret Garden) and a song originally written for, but never used, in the TV show "Felicity," ”I’ll Take it From Here”.

Daisy is accompanied on piano by Gregory Nabours, who had the daunting task of bringing up music cues with (as Daisy told us) no music cue lines written. Nabours also served as a full-on character during the opening sequence, something that seemed to be a fun device. Unfortunately, it was one that simply disappeared after the first number.  If I have any real musical notes for the show, it would be to both include more music in the first place and for Nabours to lighten up on the sustain pedal during the "Where is Love/Neverland" medley. I also question the arrangement of "I’m The Greatest Star," as it was a much truncated version of a song that I would love to have heard in its entirety.

Still Daisy After All These Yearswas first performed approximately one year ago in the same venue, and Daisy alluded to this being a newer, shorter version of that show. The show, like Daisy herself, is evolving – and doing so beautifully. We can only hope that there are many, many more performances of this show to come.

Still Daisy After All These Years will be in New York City at the Laurie Beechman on Monday, March 28th at 9:30pm, 407 West 42nd Street. Reservations: (212) 695-6909

BARRE at VERMONT,  Los Angeles, CA

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