Anyone who saw her ferocious, bitter turn in “The Lyons” may have trouble recognizing the warm, glamorous woman singing at 54 Below. But yes — clad in a sequined dress and looking far younger than her 74 years — it’s Linda Lavin.
And the star of TV’s “Alice” is quick to remind us that she’s a musical performer at heart.
“I started in clubs, all of which had the name ‘Downstairs’ in them,” she said early into her set Monday night. Looking around the subterranean confines, she added, “I’m hoping for a street-level gig someday.”
Lavin recently released her first CD, “Possibilities.” She has a thin, breathy voice that’s well compensated for by her dazzling interpretive skills and winning manner. Interspersing the numbers with recollections — including that of a long-ago breakfast in Miami with a brash but sweet comedian named Lenny Bruce — she exudes a sheer, infectious delight.
While she got multiple Tony nods for her work in plays — and won for “Broadway Bound” — she’s also performed in musicals. Here she delivers such signature numbers from her theatrical career as Mary Rodgers and Stephen Sondheim’s hilarious bossa nova parody “The Boy From . . . ” and the charming “You’ve Got Possibilities” from “It’s a Bird . . . It’s a Plane . . . It’s Superman.”
Harold Prince, that show’s director, was in the audience the other night. “I hope I’m going to be in his next show,” she said.
She showed her jazzy side on a swinging “You Better Love Me (While You May),” in which she scatted to the accompaniment of her drummer, Steve Bakunas, with whom she shamelessly flirted throughout. Then again, he happens to be her husband.
Highlights included lovely renditions of “Long Ago (and Far Away)” and “It Amazes Me,” for which she temporarily subbed for musical director Billy Stritch on the piano.
“I’m gonna play the piano because I can,” she announced.
Her terrific four-piece band was augmented late in the show by the young jazz violinist Aaron Weinstein, who dazzled on “It Might as Well Be Spring” and “Just One of Those Things.”
Lavin returns for one more show Sunday at 3 p.m. Expect an encore engagement soon.