POP MUSIC REVIEW : Bernadette Peters and Peter Allen: From N.Y. With Love

“Welcome to the Gentile version of Steve & Eydie,” Peter Allen joked at the start of his show with Bernadette Peters at the Greek Theatre on Friday.

Like that veteran husband-and-wife team, Allen and Peters mixed old standards, Broadway ballads, witty patter and a little old-fashioned shtick.

The show is a natural for Las Vegas--where it heads for two weeks in August.

But Peters’ portion transcended that slick showroom tradition. Her presentation suggests that she ranks with Bette Midler and Liza Minnelli as today’s most gifted and versatile female concert performer.

Though many Vegas headliners tend to be self-consciously showy, huffing and puffing in a desperate bid for approval, Peters performed with great ease and confidence. She also differed from many Vegas types--who appear glib and constantly on --by seeming completely natural and unaffected.

The Broadway veteran’s program showed considerable imagination. She segued at one point from a stately Stephen Sondheim ballad to a droll, loopy song by cutting-edge country/rock songwriter Lyle Lovett--and later threw in a Hank Williams classic and a Harold Arlen medley for good measure.

And the New Yorker made all of the material her own. She’s a wonderfully expressive singer, with a big, rangy voice. And she’s expert at both comic material, such as the wickedly campy “Making Love Alone,” and dramatic moments, such as an achingly tender reading of Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.”

If the musical-comedy tradition were healthier, Peters would be a massive star. As it is, she’s simply a massive--and utterly original--talent.

Allen is also a gifted performer, though he is squarely in the razzle-dazzle school. He huffed and puffed and sweated, seeking, it seemed, validation as the hardest-working man in show business.

He can have the title if he wants it, but his show would have been more satisfying if he’d relaxed a little more. Where Peters appeared to perform for the pure joy of it, Allen at times went through his paces with a grim determination.

Allen’s show was well-paced, however, ranging from spicy rockers like “Bicoastal” to hit ballads like “Don’t Cry Out Loud” to old-timey music-hall songs like “Everything Old Is New Again.” His most evocative song: “I Could Have Been a Sailor,” an uncommonly graceful, philosophical look back at life’s hard choices.

Allen peppered his show with some funny jokes--many at his own expense--but at times he seemed crass. Referring to his short-lived Broadway show, he said: “Trying to make jokes about ‘Legs Diamond’ would be like Joan Rivers trying to make jokes about Edgar.” Since when are suicide victims fair game for cheap laughs?

Allen and Peters, who are in the midst of a 10-city national tour, exhibited good chemistry when they performed together at the beginning and end of the show. Their best tandem performance: Sondheim’s vibrant “Some People.”

Hearing the great standards in the Harold Arlen medley--and realizing how few contemporary songs have that timeless appeal--one couldn’t help but think that musical theater is a dying art. If so, it’s lucky to have this lavish and loving tribute as a send-off.