At Signature Theatre, performer Tracy Lynn Olivera is raising a passionate toast to the women of Broadway’s Golden Age, from prominent legends like Julie Andrews and Ethel Merman to undercelebrated gems like Betty Comden and Dorothy Fields. Olivera sings upwards of 15 songs during this cabaret, all written by or famously performed by the best of mid-century Broadway’s leading ladies. Under Olivera’s and Signature Theatre’s Cabaret Director Mark C. Meadows’ stewardship, Something Wonderful: Broadway’s Leading Ladies becomes not only an exploration of Olivera’s love of these performers but also a look at women’s contributions to mid-century Broadway through both performance and composition.
The cabaret’s song list touches on a wide spectrum of emotion and experience, ultimately celebrating women’s triumphs in creating beloved masterworks during exceptionally challenging times for women in entertainment. Broadway’s Golden Age spanned roughly from 1943, with the premiere of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!, to 1959, with the premiere of The Sound of Music — the post-war 1940s and 1950s certainly weren’t smooth sailing for women in the United States. While women were so often undermined across social spheres, these songs show them making their mark on mainstream public art during the same timeframe — and, in doing so, delivering timelessly universal songs still performed and adored decades later.
In traditional cabaret fashion, Olivera punctuates each new song with commentary on her experience with these artists’ work as well as historical background. Before singing “I Have Confidence” from The Sound of Music as a direct impersonation of Julie Andrews, she tells us how sobbing with anticipation while waiting in line to meet Andrews inadvertently led to a chance friendship with the next lady in front of her, who happened to be Nancy Pelosi. She also shares fun facts, including how Marni Nixon, the “ghost singer” for Natalie Wood in West Side Story, not only dubbed Marilyn Monroe’s high notes in “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” but also was the mother of Andrew Gold, the multi-instrumentalist performer who wrote “Thank You for Being a Friend,” The Golden Girls’ theme song.
Olivera also selected numerous standards with major contributions made by women, including “The Way You Look Tonight,” whose lyrics were provided by Dorothy Fields, and music from Leonard Bernstein’s “On the Town,” to which the lyricist, playwright, and screenwriter Betty Comden provided substantial lyrical material. We come away not only with a sense of the thematic depth of women’s contributions, but also with a more comprehensive list of their involvement.
Pulling out so many songs from this time period that were written by or notably performed by women creates — perhaps inadvertently — a fascinating portrait of emotionally complex female characters and performers who were often placed on entertainment’s center stage while women were so often degraded in public and domestic spheres. One comes away from Something Wonderful wondering how these shows’ original audience members in the 1940s and 1950s could come away from seeing on stage such talented women — whose fully-fleshed-out characters showed such strength, intelligence, and care, and were so deserving of respect — and not feel that women deserved to be treated as equals.
Pianist and music director Lonell Johnson is a virtuoso on piano alongside Olivera, and thankfully gives us plenty of solo moments throughout the night that show off his mastery. Delorean Fullington provides superb accompaniment on the bass, and performs one major solo during one song’s music break — which Olivera concludes with an appreciative “when’s the last time you heard a bass solo?”
Lighting designer Chris Stull’s work ideally shifts the stage’s visual tone between songs, with gentle flashes during rousing numbers like “You Can’t Get a Man With a Gun” and an Ethel Merman medley.
Olivera is a remarkable vocalist, showing us some of her strongest work in “crooner” numbers. Her emotional sincerity and rich storytelling work during “The Way You Look Tonight,” “I’m in Love with a Wonderful Guy” from South Pacific, and “My White Knight” from The Music Man offer the night’s strongest material by drawing attention to the lyrics of these pieces and enabling their emotional complexity to shine.
Olivera’s belt-heavy vocal chops are showcased at a few points in the evening, but in a number of climactic moments, her vibrato doesn’t quite hit with the strength or power that the song, or her performance style up to that point, would lead us to expect. It would be one thing if Olivera’s vocal style consistently avoided vibrato, but delivering it in some moments that would benefit from it but not in others leaves the audience wanting more. In “I Have Confidence,” which Olivera assures us will be “the only impersonation of the night,” she shows consistently powerful vibrato and vocal control, which sometimes do not appear when she is singing as herself. Given that she has these tools in her vocal toolkit, the rest of the already wonderful show would benefit from even more present vibrato and vocal control. However, this element doesn’t get in the way of the night’s strongest element: Olivera’s and pianist Lonell Johnson’s storytelling.
Thanks to the night’s selections, Tracy Lynn Olivera’s presence on stage, her clear love of these songs, and Lonell Johnson’s masterful piano work, Something Wonderful is indeed that, and might even leave you thinking in more depth about the women behind these beloved songs and stories to boot.
Running Time: 75 minutes with no intermission.
Something Wonderful: Broadway’s Leading Ladies plays through September 20, 2026, in the ARK Theatre at Signature Theatre, 4200 Campbell Ave, Arlington, VA. Tickets (from $61) are available online, by calling the box office at 703-820-9771, or through TodayTix.
