My Fair Levy

by David Warner

"Everyone! Everyone! I hate to tell ya, but the potatoes are ice cold!"

The dissatisfied customer who made that pronouncement to a crowded restaurant eight years ago could not have known it at the time, but her frosted hair and brassy attitude helped spawn a star. Actor/singer/producer Todd Waddington was a waiter at the old Café Nola that night, and turned "the trouble table in Hurricane Alley" into restaurant legend, imitating the not-so-grande dame for years. In 1999, when he was cast in the Arden production of Michael Ogborn's Box Office of the Damned and needed to find a characterization for an irrepressible "matinee lady," he remembered his favorite loud broad, and Harriett Levy was born.

"But Harriett is much warmer" than the woman who inspired her, says Waddington. "She's a caretaker of the world." And the world loves her back. Waddington got a Barrymore nomination for Box Office, and Harriett went on to host Holiday Follies at the Arden and Waddington's estimable cabaret series, which has featured numerous fine local singers at Frangelica and now at Tavern on Camac.

But Harriett's never had the chance to carry a whole show on her own -- until now. "She was a Rockette, you know; that's where she got her start in show business," explains her creator. "After performing for a couple of years at the Millville Motor Lodge, she decided she could take her solo act on a pre-Broadway tour." That "tour" begins at Tavern on Camac this weekend with My Heart Belongs to Daddy!, for which Harriett promises a hair-raising repertoire of pop standards ("Send in the Clowns") and dance hits ("Get This Party Started"), plus such oddities as The Singing Nun's "Dominique" with a sizzling Latin beat.

Waddington's own impressive acting and vocal chops are well-known to local audiences, who've seen him at the Arden in Baby Case and Into the Woods and in the revues of Tom Wilson Weinberg. Now that Harriett's about to go solo, though, who knows? Dame Edna, watch your back.

My Heart Belongs to Daddy!, Oct. 11-12 and 25-26, 8 p.m., $17 cover includes a drink, Tavern on Camac, 243 S. Camac St. (between Locust and Spruce, and 12th and 13th sts.), 215-545-0900.