CABARET RESPONSE: JENIFER LEWIS

What an amazing evening!! Even though my best friend's birthday was on September 24th I told her that I had the perfect birthday gift for her and she needed to trust me and all I told her was that we would celebrate her birthday on October 20th. Heather is not the kind of person you keep surprises from so we was very curious as to where we were going. She was so thrilled that I was taking her to see Jenifer Lewis at The Plush Room that the look on her face was priceless. I knew by beginning of the show that I did good.

If you don't know who Jenifer Lewis is go rent the movie "JACKIE'S BACK" - and if you are gay why the hell haven't you seen this movie?!! Ms. Lewis plays a lot of "Mothers" in films and was also in the television show Strong Medicine.

Heather & I love her and remember her mostly from Jackie's Back which is a parody documentary about a has-been Diva trying to make a comeback concert. It is camp heaven and there were a lot of Jackie Washington fans in the audience tonight including my fellow Urinetown cast mate Stephan Smith Collins and his partner Dan.

Ms. Lewis was a diva in every since of the word - notice how I say Ms. Lewis. She sang, told stories, jokes -a wonderful cabaret act. There is a wonderful mini-review of the show written by Richard Connema of Talkin' Broadway and what's interesting is that in his review Richard talks about a heckler who had to be removed and tonight there were two drunk women and Ms. Lewis asked that they leave.

I loved her stories about working with Meryl Streep in the recent revival of Mother Courage and her choice of songs - mostly songs that she composed herself.
The audience was so responsive to Ms. Lewis that they demanded that she come back for an encore. We kept clapping and were gonna keep clapping until she came out again. She really seemed overwhelmed by the applause as she scrambled to find something to sing for an encore. She did a soulful rendition of His Eye On The Sparrow. It was a wonderful, wonderful night.

Now I have to go watch Jackie's Back!

=+)

Love

CoCo