“This is a night of firsts and favorites” announced Alice Ripley as she took the stage at 54 Below on August 12, for a night of All Sondheim. Promising to sing some of her favorite tunes by the legendary composer, some of which she’d never sung before, and just accompanied by a piano, the Tony-winning performer’s pristine voice stirred the emotions of audience members who cheered her as she took on classics like “Losing My Mind” and “Rose’s Turn” (which she embraced as part of entering the second stage of her life, she expressed).

Mixing beloved Sondheim tunes with more “obscure” choices, who would have guessed for instance that Ripley’s favorite song by the maestro was “Anyone Can Whistle”?, the songstress delighted audience members with anecdotes about her career. She remembered meeting Sondheim for the first time, and realizing he’d been watching her rehearse one of his numbers in a most unique way, his advice “just sing the words next time”.

Ripley’s voice, which seems to acquire new depths and texture each passing year, had never sounded as melancholy as when she did “I Remember” from Evening Primrose, which she acknowledged was a “cult favorite”. At times, Ripley’s anecdotes seemed rather intimate; she allowed us in when she confessed that her favorite Sondheim line came from “Losing My Mind”:

Sometimes I stand in the middle of the floor
Not going left, not going right

Realizing someone else felt the same way as her made her fall in love with Sondheim! In that moment, everyone at 54 Below realized that at one point we were all Alice Ripley, whether he seduced us through Sweeney Todd (from which she sang a medley) or A Little Night Music (Ripley explained hearing Judy Collins do the song on the radio changed her), we all remember the exact moment when we realized Sondheim spoke to us about us.

Alice Ripley's All Sondheim at 54 Below returns on September 23. For tickets and more click here.