Energy, interaction and spunk. That pretty much sums up Shari Lewis' matinee performance at the Capitol Theatre last Saturday.
During the 11/2 hour show, Lewis performed songs from her celebrated PBS childrens' show "Lamb Chop's Play Along," dazzled the audience with magic and, of course, pulled out her fuzzy sock side kicks Lamb Chop, Hush Puppy and Charlie Horse.The show also featured skits that surprised the older adult-children who came to re-experience their childhoods.
Kicking the show off with the big-band sound of "Don't Just Sit There," Lewis danced, kicked and skipped around the stage, creating a fun-loving, easy-going atmosphere that spread from the front of the theatre to the top of the bal-cony.
Everyone clapped, patted and snapped along, while singing to Lewis' lead.
"This is very fun for me," Lewis said during a short break. "Because I get to see you up close. On TV I can't see you, and I'm afraid some of you might think I can. In fact, one little girl came up to me in the airport and said, `I watched you on TV today, remember?' "
Then there was a time when a mother came up and asked, "Are you the original Shari Lewis?"
"I answered her and said, `Yes, with most of my original parts.' "
With that, Lewis snapped her fingers and cued her band leader, pianist Stormy Sachs, and the Eugene Jeleznik Orchestra to touch off "Ola, Ole."'
Probably the biggest explosion of applause happened when Lewis introduced her most famous puppet, Lamb Chop.
With the puppet's sophisticated and "sheepish" humor, Lewis' incredible ventriloquism kept the audience alive with a breathless play on the tongue twister "Peter Piper."
Another great one-liner from Lamb Chop was, "Shari, every time you clap your hands, I black out."
Older people, whom Lewis endearingly called her "Big Babies," sat spellbound as they watched the woman who entertained them during the late 1950s and mid 1960s.
And the magic didn't stop there. Lewis performed rope tricks that included vanishing knots her late father, a New York City magician, taught her. Then without a pause, she introduced Charley Horse, while the audience clapped and patted out a horse's gallop.
Charley Horse told knock-knock jokes and sang a clever little song about a creature he rode - called "A-horse-a-cow-chick-a-pig-opottamus" - that gave milk, laid eggs, had a snout and liked to swim.
Other skits included an audience interactive story of Sleeping Beauty. A hand-waving song about spiders, snakes, ducks and birds called "I Love You," and a show-stopping kiddie version of the opera "Carmen."
By using three character costumes, Lewis jumped to each puppet-like body and sang the opera, which was whittled down and arranged to about four minutes by Lewis and Sachs.
The show's last sock-partner to emerge was Hush Puppy.
"This girl's got a hand in everything I do," Hush Puppy said referring to Lewis. "You're looking at the only dog in the world who gets his back scratched from the inside out."
Then after singing happy birthday to everyone, Lewis ended the show with a plea for support of PBS and lead the audience in two versions of "The Song that Never Ends."