BROADWAY SINGER PERFORMS IN CAPE

Performing in Cape Girardeau isn't just another quick tour stop for Jo Sullivan Loesser. It's also a trip home.

Loesser, a Broadway performer, returned to Cape Girardeau Friday to visit her parents and perform at Chateau Girardeau. She is the daughter of Hessie and Eileen Sullivan.

About 100 people attended the concert Friday. Loesser, accompanied by Colin Romoff, sang a medley of Broadway hits from Andrew Lloyd Weber, Steven Sondheim and her husband, Frank Loesser. She ended the show with a special song for her mother.

Loesser, who was born in Mounds, Ill., moved to New York to start her musical career. She married composer Frank Loesser in 1959. He died ten years later. But his wife and daughter, Emily, continue the musical tradition. The duo perform many of his songs in their concerts and on Broadway."We call it `Together Again for the First Time,'" she said of their concert. Emily performed in the "Wizard of Oz" at the St. Louis Muny in 1992.

However, the two haven't performed together lately since they are both busy with projects of their own.

Loesser just finished performing in Florida with Kitty Carlisle Hart and John Raitt. Her daughter, Emily, will perform in a St. Louis production of "Guys and Dolls," this summer. Her father wrote the music."I sing a lot of Frank Loesser songs, obviously," Jo Loesser said of her performances. She chooses each song from a collection of at least 50.

During her concert Friday, she sang her husband's first published song, "I Wish I Were Twins." Her next project will be working on a stage version of her husband's "Hans Christian Andersen."Loesser returns to Cape Girardeau about once a year to visit her family and shop for antiques. She last performed in 1983.