Make your next special occasion one to remember by having a world-class, award-winning entertainer perform live for you and your guests!
Klea can currently bring to you any of the following performances
One of the Girls
The words and music of Jerry Herman
Jerry Herman, is the Broadway composer-lyricist who gave America the rousing, “Hello, Dolly!” “Mame” and “La Cage aux Folles.” He wrote music that left the nation singing — rich melodies with powerful lyrics that stopped shows, dazzled critics, kept audiences returning for more, and paved Broadway with gold for producers and performers. He died in 2019 at the age of 88.
Klea turns her long association with Broadway’s Jerry Herman into a brand new show, ONE OF THE GIRLS. Considered one of Herman’s premier interpreters, Klea officially became one of “Jerry’s Girls” when she starred in the 50th Anniversary Production of Hello, Dolly! at Goodspeed Opera House. But they were introduced years before, when Jerry heard Klea sing one of the cut Hello, Dolly! songs written for Ethel Merman (the original choice to star in the show.) He immediately invited Klea to sing with the London Philharmonic at the Palladium and she’s been singing his songs with symphony orchestras across the country ever since. ONE OF THE GIRLS will focus attention on the powerful, loving, and memorable women in Jerry’s life. Both real, like his dear mother Ruth, who taught him that you could throw a party simply because “It’s Today” and characters like Mame, who encouraged us to “Open A New Window,” Dolly Levi, who decided to rejoin the human race “Before The Parade Passes By” and Zaza, who bravely declared, “I Am What I Am.” Jerry lifted wonderful women off the page and into our hearts for almost six decades.
WHAT CRITICS ARE SAYING
Everything the Traffic Will Allow
The Songs and Sass of Ethel Merman
This acclaimed show is Klea’s loving tribute to the songs made famous by the legendary stage personality Ethel Merman. The concert highlights what is arguably the greatest body of show music ever written for a single performer featuring such songs as “I Got Rhythm” from Girl Crazy, “You’re The Top and Blow, Gabriel, Blow” from Anything Goes and “There’s No Business Like Show Business” from Annie Get Your Gun. Also present are Merman ballads such as, “Just a Moment Ago” from Happy Hunting and “I Got Lost in His Arms,” from Annie Get Your Gun. Merman aficionados will recognize “World Take Me Back,” an original song written especially for her from Hello, Dolly! that was shelved when she chose not to do the original run of the show. Among the many accolades the original production received, the recording of Everything the Traffic Will Allow was named one of the top the show albums of 2002 by Talkin'Broadway.com.
WHAT CRITICS ARE SAYING
“Klea Blackhurst is engaged, trained and talented enough to give us wonderful intimations of Merman the performer without being crushed by her. And she is smart enough and a good enough writer to turn the story of Merman’s star power into a folk tale. We were watching a real talent, a performer we knew could delight us without ever singing a note that had once been commandeered by Ethel Merman. We were not in thrall to the past: we were watching an interpretation of it that turned into something new.”
Margo Jefferson, New York Times
An Evening With Klea Blackhurst
From "A Cockeyed Optimist" to "The Yodeling Muchacha," An Evening with Klea Blackhurst is a wonderful celebration of classic American popular songs, Broadway show tunes as well as a few contemporary surprises. Klea will have you listening and laughing to the lyrics of Cole Porter, Johnny Mercer, Yip Harburg, Ira Gershwin, Oscar Hammerstein and Dorothy Fields. This is a show in and of itself, but Klea can also work with you to customize an evening that fits perfectly with a special event!
Vernon Duke’s Broadway
Taking A Chance On Love
Klea turns her passion for musical-theatre history towards the “checkered” (his own word!) Broadway career of composer Vernon Duke. Vernon Duke was the creator of such indisputable standards as “April in Paris” and “Autumn in New York,” although each was unfortunately nestled in a gargantuan flop, “Walk a Little Faster and Thumbs Up! respectively.) Duke's legacy as a Broadway composer ultimately rests on 1940's Cabin in the Sky, but there are countless musical treasures written throughout his career—songs from Banjo Eyes, starring Eddie Cantor and Dancing in the Streets, starring Mary Martin. “Infusing Duke's songs with oxygen” (NY Times), Klea performs forgotten gems as well as beloved Duke treasures. “Between her powerful pipes, intelligent and humorous patter, and sublime lyrical interpretations, this is one of those rare 'must rush-out-and-see' shows that you will kick yourself for missing.” (Talkin' Broadway.com).
WHAT CRITICS ARE SAYING
“Assuming Ms. Blackhurst can act she needs a Broadway theatre as desperately as Kristin Chenoweth, so that she can flex her talent.”
Stephen Holden, New York Times
“If you like performers with incredible voices who are equally adept at raising the roof as they are singing a child to sleep, have I got a girl for you…..Between her powerful pipes, intelligent and humorous patter, and sublime lyrical interpretations, this is a show you’ll kick yourself for missing.”
TalkinBroadway.com
“Always award worthy, the effervescent Klea Blackhurst will win you over with pluck,verve and talent – this amazing gal who understands what entertainment is all about.”
Next Magazine
Klea Blackhurst and Billy Stritch in
Dreaming of a Song
The Music of Hoagy Carmichael
This first artistic collaboration of Klea Blackhurst and Billy Stritch mines the catalogue of one of America's most treasured songwriters, who wrote such standards as “Skylark”, “Georgia On My Mind” and “Star Dust.”
Hoagy Carmichael, the celebrated American composer, pianist, singer, actor and bandleader, wrote some of the most lasting and influential pop songs of the twentieth century. Collaborating with lyrists that range from Frank Loesser, Mitchell Parish and Johnny Mercer to Ned Washington, Paul Francis Webster and Harold Adamson, his contributions to Hollywood films and the hit parade are invaluable to the Great American Songbook. Klea – called “a huggable performer with a positive attitude, a sunny voice and a refreshing sense of humor” by Variety – and Billy, praised for a voice “beguiling in its warmth, delicacy and clarity of diction” by The New York Times, perfectly capture Hoagy’s signature blend of easygoing American charm and Tin Pan Alley sophistication.
Klea’s ebullient delivery complements Billy’s suave crooning on a remarkable range of Carmichael’s compositions. Selections range from standards loved around the world – like such as “Star Dust,” “Heart and Soul” and “Skylark” – to lesser-known songs “Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief” (first performed by Betty Hutton in the 1945 film The Stork Club) and “My Resistance Is Low” (a hit in London from the film Las Vegas Story, but relatively obscure in the states) to the virtually unknown, like “Walk It Off.” Klea and Billy take turns on solos, such as her rollicking take on the rarity “Come Easy Go Easy Love”, and his impassioned, powerful “Georgia On My Mind.”
Klea Blackhurst, Jim Caruso & Billy Stritch In
A Swinging Birdland Christmas
In the tradition of beloved seasonal specials, Klea, Jim Caruso and Billy Stritch, one of the premier singer-pianists on the New York and national jazz and cabaret scene, have become holiday perennials at New York’s Birdland perform swinging arrangements of “Christmas Waltz,” Kay Thompson’s “Holiday Season,” “SleighRide,” and “I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm,” “Snow,” and “It Happened In Sun Valley” among many other favorites.
“A Swinging Birdland Christmas” is also available on CD, on Birdland Records
Click Below to Watch the Promo Video!
