Back together to push the boundaries

GLENS FALLS—“You keep asking, what have I been doing for the last seven years?”

Nancy TimpanaroHogan replied to the inevitable question. “Are you kidding? I can barely remember going to the bathroom today.”

Actually, pressed on the subject, she recalls quite a bit of her last seven years.

“I’ve done some things for Saratoga Arts, some things at Fort Salem Theater. I’ve done some stuff in the city,” she said. “The last show I was in? Well, ‘Gypsy’ at Cohoes Music Hall.” Given TimpanaroHogan’s brassy belt, guess which role.

“Oh, and I did Totie this summer.” That would be “Adorable Me: The Totie Fields Story,” her Backstage Bistro Award-winning original musical on the life of the formidable comedian; she’ll be warming it up again for presentation at the Friar’s Club in New York City early next year.

Those with a longer memory may recall that Timpanaro-Hogan, an award-winning New York cabaret artist and actress, has been a fixture here in the Capital Region for almost two decades. One of her ventures was Wild Women— the cheeky han- dle for a series of cabaret collaborations. Today, the most frequent collaborators are Laura Roth and musical director and arranger Catherine Reid.

Now the Wild Women are back, with an almostall-new show.

“The Wood Theater in Glens Falls asked me if I would do a New Year’s Eve show, and we’re celebrating my 60th birthday the next day. Laura and I and Catherine have a great connection onstage, and we were missing each other. Laura and I have a great blend vocally, but we also have a great chemistry. I think that’s what makes this show so special,” Roth said. “I’m sure this isn’t going to be the last thing we do together.”

Roth’s resumé is nearly as long and varied as her partner’s, and of similar character— a broad assortment of cabaret venues, including holiday SRO performances in Atlantic City, a swath of musical-theater performances and a series of performances in the summer at The Georgian in Lake George—“still my home base,” she said.

Their collaborator, Reid, a music teacher at Lake George High School, has written opera and classical overtures, scored musical theater and television, and has even been an accompa- nist for Carly Simon. For this program, she leads a four-member band from the piano.

“It’s really a great, eclectic mix of fun, of audience participation and of harmony,” TimpanaroHogan said. “It’s fun, but it’s all really high quality. And basically, I’d say it’s 85 to 90 percent new.”