You could be deaf and still be moved by Bebe Neuwirth’s new show, “Stories With Piano #4.” So powerful is her physical expressiveness that her less-than-stellar voice — husky and full of vibrato — is almost beside the point.
From the joy of Irving Berlin’s “I Love a Piano” to the bitter heartbreak of Kurt Weill’s “Surabaya Johnny” and the world-weary resignation of “But the World Goes Round,” Neuwirth — whose turn in “Chicago” long preceded her tough-judge role on “The Good Wife” — transforms each number into a full-blown cathartic experience.
Accompanied by her expert pianist/musical director Scott Cady, the singer reveals her dancer’s instincts with sinuous movements of her hands and arms that at times border on Kabuki. The effect is sometimes distracting, but more often it enhances the material.
Not surprisingly, several of the songs directly reference dancing, like Edith Piaf’s “Simply a Waltz,” accompanied by graceful ballroom steps, and “Mr. Bojangles,” for which she breaks into a gentle soft-shoe.
But her voice also dances, ranging from a Kewpie-doll sweetness on “(I’d Like to Get You on a) Slow Boat to China” to a guttural edge for such Weill classics as “The Bilbao Song” to a bluesy moan on “Invitation to the Blues” and “Shiver Me Timbers” by Weill’s modern-day counterpart, Tom Waits.
Amid all that angst are some lighthearted moments. For Kander and Ebb’s “Ring Them Bells” — a number Liza Minnelli made famous, about apartment-house neighbors finding each other halfway around the world — Neuwirth turns herself into a breathless ingénue bursting with wonderment at life’s caprices.
Interspersing her songs with deeply personal commentary — “A little Zen with your cocktails, sorry,” she apologized after one particularly philosophical introduction — she draws the audience into her spell. Ending the evening with a poignant encore of “I’ll Be Seeing You,” she left us wondering when, and hoping it wouldn’t be terribly long.