| Tip-Top
Tributes
December 2, 2004
By David Finkle
Backstage
Like a human reincarnation of the ancient
radio show "Information Please," Klea Blackhurst
imparted much of what her Opia audience wanted to know about
Vernon Duke (ne' Vladimir Dukelsky) as she romped through
"Autumn in New York: Vernon Duke's Broadway." Luckily
for patrons at the just-completed stint, the copper-helmeted
Blackhurst retained the Ethel Merman brassiness she flaunted
skillfully in her last show, "Everything the Traffic
Will Allow." What's more likely, of course, is that the
crisp-as-Wheaties Blackhurst can't leave the Merman intonation
entirely behind. How could she? She's worshipped La Merm from
childhood (Digression: How often is it that a showbiz aspirant
arrives because of one icon's influence?).
Calling herself "a boom-chuck-boom-chuck-boom-chuck kind
of girl," Blackhurst indeed boom-chucked as she worked
her way through the flabbergasting Vernon Duke songbook, but
she also retired the boom-chucks for some of the more sensitive
numbers. I wondered at her recklessness in putting both "April
in Paris" and "Autumn in New York" at the top
of the running order, but came to realize she'd saved some
attention-getting discoveries for the end. One, a song called
"Sailing at Midnight" that has a lyric by Howard
Dietz, is a true stunner, and another called "Indefinable
Charm" (also Dietz words) is - well, indefinably charming.
Everything Blackhurst intoned came at the crowd with her tangy
sincerity. She's another of those performers who make you
relaxed and happy.
|
