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Anything She Could Do...
September 11, 2001
by David Finkle
Pauline Kael once wrote that it takes
a star to play a star. If that's true, then Klea Blackhurst
is a star. In "Everything the Traffic Will Allow: The
Songs and Sass of Ethel Merman," Blackhurst (appearing
at Upstairs at Jack Rose, Saturdays and Sundays through November
11) takes on a healthy portion of the repertoire associated
with Broadway's most famous belter and reshapes it into her
own showstopping format.
When, for instance, Merman got set to
deliver the Dorothy Fields-Arthur Schwartz "This Is It"
at the 92nd Street Y 30-some years back, she grabbed the mic
stand by its long neck and moved it three feet to the left
so she could sing out with nothing between her and her idolaters.
When Blackhurst, whose mezzo is firm but considerably smaller,
does "This Is It," she's quiet, reflective, and
on mic. Occasionally, Blackhurst—mentioning she grew
up in a Salt Lake City home where Merman was a god—unleashes
a gravelly phrase or a yelp or hits one of those grace notes
Ethel doled out. ("Ah-I got rhythm," the stenographer-turned-legend
might intone.) Every once in a while, Blackhurst does the
one-foot-other-foot-one-arm-other-arm movement Merman affected
when slamming the back wall with the Gershwin brothers, Irving
Berlin, or Cole Porter, who'd dubbed her La Merman.
But more often she shrewdly appropriates
the Merman catalog as a way of asserting her own refreshing
personality. Intelligent, warm, and—from some angles—a
near ringer for Bette Midler, Blackhurst has no need to replicate
her predecessor doggedly. She takes amusing or touching liberties
with the material, abetted by bassist Ray Kilday, drummer
Steve Barosik, and especially pianist-arranger-alchemist Michael
Rice. "Everything's Coming Up Roses" gets ragged,
and "Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries" gets uked
(with her strumming). Call her La Blackhurst.
Copyright 2001 The Village Voice
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