Lucie Arnaz: Latin Roots

Lucie Arnaz

A full house was star-gazing on Saturday night. How many offspring of celebrities have made it, basically, on their own? I can count them on one hand. Lucie Arnaz, in her wonderful 90-minute cabaret act, brought her father, Desi, to the forefront for a remarkable evening of Spanish/English songs and stories.

Arnaz has conquered television, movies and Broadway. By her own admission, cabaret is where she has always felt most comfortable. This was evident throughout. A gorgeous woman, her voice can sound almost oboe-like in her lower register and, as she “goes upstairs,”  when her rapid vibrato comes to the fore, her belt is thrilling.

Backed by long-time Musical Director and collaborator Ron Abel, who also constructed the act with her, and a terrific six-piece band, she opened with “I’ll See You in C-U-B-A” by Irving Berlin and then went a tad more mainstream with a medley of “I Love a Piano,” “Slap That Bass,” “Drum Crazy” and “Alexander’s Ragtime Band.”

There were visual accents as well: home movies of her family from her childhood; snippets from I Love Lucy; and, for me, the highlight of the evening, a video of her son, Joe Luckinbill, who wrote a beautiful, beautiful melody to his mother’s lyrics, a song called “The Music in Your Heart.”

From Eydie Gormé’s hit, “Blame it on the Bossa Nova” and Shelley Fabares’ hit “Johnny Angel” (no, I’m not kidding) to “I Got Lost in His Arms” and, “Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps,” Lucie Arnaz showed a range of not only her beautiful voice but her ability to convey the words and thoughts of what she was singing to the enraptured audience.

She closed with an encore of “Babalu” that blew the roof off the house.

Please forgive the obvious, but “I” and her adoring attendees “Loved Lucie.”