On a Mini-Tour, Betty Buckley Turns Tender

As a girl in Fort Worth, Betty Buckley found herself placed at the back of the choir, with the director telling her, “Blend in, Betty Lynn, blend in.” The admonishment perplexed Buckley because, she says, “I thought I was.”

Upon discovering the world of musical theater, however, the diva-in-training found where she belonged. “I was hugely relieved,” she tells concert audiences, “to discover there was a purpose for girls with loud voices.”

For years, Buckley has been known for this voice--which seems as big as her home state--and for often over-the-top theatrics. But in her current concert tour, she turns tender and introspective, her voice rushing lightly over jazz arrangements by her musical director, Kenny Werner. Reducing the buzz in her ultra-focused, vibrato-heavy soprano to a near purr, she infuses song after song with a mixture of melancholy and unquenchable hope.

The effect was quietly but irresistibly moving as she began a mini-tour through Southern California Thursday night before a sold-out audience at the 800-seat Poway Center for the Performing Arts. Tonight, she appears in Cerritos, Sunday in Glendora and Monday in Malibu.

Backed by a jazz quartet, Buckley revisited her Andrew Lloyd Webber hits: “Memory” from “Cats” (she was the original Grizabella in the Broadway production), and “With One Look” and “As If We Never Said Goodbye” from “Sunset Boulevard” (she played yearlong runs as Norma Desmond in London and New York). But the highlight of her 2 1/2-hour, two-act performance came in songs by another of her favorite Broadway composers: Stephen Sondheim.

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In “Sorry-Grateful,” a ballad about love’s dualities, her voice filled with haunted yearning, while in “Anyone Can Whistle,” a tune about trying to relax into life, she turned quietly beseeching. The real heartbreaker, though, was “Send In the Clowns,” accompanied only by Werner on piano. To capture the mood of this song about a woman who opens herself to love only after it’s too late, Werner played jagged, shattered shards of harmony that kept trying to fit themselves back together. For her part, Buckley kept her voice focused deep at the back of her throat, creating a hollow sound, like an empty place in her heart.

Between songs, Buckley chatted easily with the audience, recounting stories from her career, and in truly un-divalike fashion, she graciously introduced the members of her superb quartet--Bill Drewes on reeds, Ratzo Harris on bass, Duduka Da Fonseca on percussion, in addition to Werner--a total of three times.

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* Betty Buckley performs tonight at 8 at Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, 12700 Center Court Drive. $55-$75. (800) 300-4345 or (562) 916-8500. Also Sunday, 2 p.m.: Haugh Performing Arts Center, Citrus College, 1000 W. Foothill Blvd., Glendora. $30. (626) 963-9411. Monday, 8 p.m.: Smothers Theatre, Pepperdine University, 24255 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu. $40. Accompanied by piano only. (310) 456-4522.