‘Broadway’ Is the Music of Their Lives

Part musical revue, part personal history, “Back From Broadway” at the Tiffany Theater is an intimate, heartfelt retrospective that makes excellent use of the skills and experiences of its co-creators, Hershey Felder and James Barbour.

Forgoing the familiar formula of structuring song anthologies around topics or themes inherent in the material, the two performers have instead made more idiosyncratic selections based on the songs’ unique significance in their own lives. Threaded with simple introductory narratives, the show uses an eclectic assortment of Gershwin, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Chopin and Lerner & Loewe to trace the parallel odysseys that led Felder and Barbour to their individual appearances on the Great White Way.

Barbour, one of those increasingly rare singers willing to rely on his natural voice without help from a microphone, fills the space with assured, resonant renditions from “Carousel,” “1776” and “My Fair Lady,” after recalling his humbling first professional audition and how he found his link to Billy Bigelow’s soul in a defiant youthful photo of his own father.

Felder, who originated his “George Gershwin Alone” tribute in L.A. before taking it to New York, returns to that inspirational wellspring for both personal anecdote and a stunning solo piano recital of “Rhapsody in Blue.” His recollection of a pivotal youthful stand-in appearance as Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof” is an inspiration to any aspiring performer.

A less successful excerpt from Felder’s musical work in progress about Noah’s Ark has wisely been dropped from the show, whose contents are still evolving as director Joel Zwick helps the performers shape it into a tour-worthy vehicle.

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“Back From Broadway,” Tiffany Theater, 6532 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles. Tuesdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 3 and 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 and 7 p.m.; New Year’s Eve performances at 6:30 and 9 p.m. Ends Dec. 31. $35-45. (310) 289-2999. Running time: 1 hour, 25 minutes.