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TAUNTON - The sounds of New York and Boston cabaret stirred the ghosts and echoes of the historic Roseland Ballroom Friday night as Eric Larivee's new Dinner Theater and Cabaret/Jazz Club opened to a packed house and rave reviews.

"If you know me, you know I'm a crusader," Larivee told the crowd of about 125. "And saving this historic Ballroom is my latest crusade."

To that end, Larivee's gala opening included not one headliner, but three - the best cabaret performers from Boston and New York - and his SongBird waitstaff, for a total of 15 soloists performing for nearly 3 hours.

A great buffet dinner and 15 soloists for $35? Well, there's a new Broadway, and it's the street of the same name in, of all places, Taunton.

The evening began with a sumptuous five-course American buffet, including roast beef and chicken with the trimmings. Boston's self-deprecating emcee Carol O'Shaugnessy - billed as the "First Lady of Cabaret" - then mixed American standards like "Chicago," with bawdy remarks and putdowns of herself, her weight, the ridiculous French, greater talents around her and dating.

"Older men want to be with younger women," O'Shaugnessy pined. "That means I get to be with a guy who is 85."

She brought down the house with parody lyrics to Andrew Lloyd Webber's classic "Memory" telling how she can only dream of her days of raiding the refrigerator at midnight for fatty foods.

O' Shaugnessy was the marvelous glue that held the evening together, the perfect mix of music, mirth and merriment. Her first set was followed by Larivee's talented singing waitstaff - Allyson Bernier, Brian Duarte, Angella Kronillis, Matt Heywood, Eric Pereira, Roxy Roca, Tracy Silva, Brian Simons, Amanda Sousa, Dawn Souza and Nancy Overlock.

Each sang a solo and displayed varying degrees of talent from merely adequate to superb to stunning, but Larivee has the instinctive knack of knowing which songs will showcase the strengths of each of his singers. Particularly impressive was Silva's "Lovin' Dat Man of Mine," from "Showboat."

Her powerful vocal finish - which led to the first of several standing ovations from the crowd - left a "jealous" O'Shaugnessy to reclaim the stage with a plaintive, "So what!!!"

There isn't space to detail all of the many evening's highlights. Sultry Aurel D'Agostino, the second headliner, lit fanning flames with several torch songs that left the crowd giddy. Larivee himself, not to be outdone, sang "On A Clear Day," evoking as pure a sound as you will hear, his phrasing impeccable.

A following set by O'Shaugnessy - as an old Italian woman from the North End of Boston whose randy husband wants "A little pizza (piece a...the action)" every night - was so funny that paramedics were almost needed. After a second tour by the Songbirds - whose collective harmonies are rapturous - the capper was New York cabaret award-winner Dane Vannatter, who demonstrated the purest sounds of the evening, ballads so heartfelt they left you weak.

His final number, "To Life," written for comedian George Burns to sing after his 100th birthday - but never performed by Burns because he didn't make it to the concert a few months later - was so powerful that several audience members could be seen crying.

A few, at our table, were doubly grateful for this splendid weekly Friday entertainment in Taunton - Larivee is presenting different New York and Boston headliners each week through August - because they literally walked to the Roseland from their houses, appreciative that 'Broadway' had come to Broadway without them spending a penny on gas. "It was almost too much to take in," one of them said of the nearly three-hour show that needed some fine tuning, noting that Larivee is known for giving as much musical bang for the buck as he physically can. "But, when you think of Broadway and New York club ticket prices, well, boy, did we get our money's worth."

Eric Larivee's Roseland Ballroom Dinner Theatre and Cabaret Jazz Club has a new show on July 18, July 25, Aug. 1, 8, 15 and 16. $35 covers dinner and the show, but cocktails and gratuity for waitstaff are extra.

Go to www.RoselandProductions.com or call 508-828-9189 for tickets and reservations.