Len Cariou

Maree Johnston called at short notice with a spare ticket to see Len Cariou's last show at 54 Below and you know me, never knock back the chance to see a Broadway legend.

I guess most of us have been fans since first hearing that honeyed voice crooning "Think How It's Gonna Be" to Lauren Bacall on the Broadway Cast Album of APPLAUSE in 1970. Others might have discovered him as Fredrik in A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC but certainly everyone knows him as the original SWEENEY TODD. He recreates all those performances in his current show which is otherwise based on the first nightclub act he put together in Canada 53 years ago. His voice is no longer what it was but when he revisits his famous roles the years fall away and you suddenly remember exactly where you were when you first heard him perform those now classic Sondheim songs. Below is a clip from a couple of years ago of an Alan Jay Lerner-Charles Strouse gem from DANCE A LITTLE CLOSER, the musical version of IDIOT'S DELIGHT in which Cariou briefly starred with Liz Robertson.