Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – KIKI & HERB and BRIDGET EVERETT: Two of cabaret’s most outrageous and popular acts return

• By drediman
• December 4, 2021
• No Comments

This week, Brooklyn Academy of Music and Joe’s Pub, respectively, play host to Kiki & Herb (a.k.a. Justin Vivian Bond and Kenny Mellman) and Bridget Everett, two of cabaret’s most outrageous and popular acts. After having been denied the opportunity to perform in front of a live audience all these months, these larger-than-life entertainers have emerged on the other side of lockdown with guns blazing. Read on for my further thoughts.

KIKI & HERB SLEIGH AT BAM
Brooklyn Academy of Music (Harvey Theater)
Through December 4

It’s a rare and joyful occurrence whenever Justin Vivian Bond and Kenny Mellman reach into the closet to resuscitate Kiki & Herb, one of New York nightlife’s most celebrated acts. This week, they’ve done just that by bringing back the outfit’s holiday show, Kiki & Herb SLEIGH at BAM (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), which ushers back in-person at the Harvey Theater. From the get-go, the duo operates at full throttle – with Herb pounding the keys and Kiki ripping through the vocals as if their lives depended upon it. Given their long history together, it’s not surprising to report that both Bond and Mellman are totally in total sync as performers and in full control of the material, even if they give the impression that they’re careening off the tracks. Although billed as a holiday show, SLEIGH follows the same formula as other Kiki & Herb shows, notably their signature scatter-brained musical mashups and boozy but whip smart banter. Throughout the evening, they stumble across seemingly random revelations while performing songs you thought you knew, ranging from the songbooks of alternative music darlings Radiohead and Belle and Sebastian to the late, great Stephen Sondheim. As an encore, Bond and Millman performed a beguilingly straightforward rendition of “Send in the Clowns”, a song which seems on point for this legendary duo at this point in their storied careers.

BRIDGET EVERETT & THE TENDER MOMENTS
Joe’s Pub
Through December 4

Like Bond and Mellman, Bridget Everett is a similarly maximalist performer with a boozy bent. Over the course of the last decade or so, Ms. Everett has pushed her brand of anything goes entertainment to the forefront of the cabaret world. Perhaps most responsible for her ascent is the show Bridget Everett & The Tender Moments (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), which is concluding a weeklong run at Joe’s Pub, where Ms. Everett is an undisputed favorite. Part cathartic cabaret memoir, part rollicking rock concert, the show puts this big-voiced, big-boned diva squarely in the spotlight as she regales her adoring audience with hilariously unfiltered stories of her life (including the sad recent passing of her beloved dog Poppy). And as backed by a fantastic band – led by in-demand music director Matt Ray, who works with the likes of Taylor Mac – Ms. Everett, Chardonnay in hand, powers through her musical numbers with abandon. For her return to in-person performance, the cabaret star has recalibrated her show for safety reasons – the performance I attended this week was less aggressively and physically interactive than previous visits to the show. She’s also donning fabulous new costumes and has updated some of the banter to reflect the times we live in, which keeps the the show fresh. And as if to acknowledge the current challenges facing all of us, Ms. Everett concludes the show by letting her guard down (something we don’t see very much of) and giving an unexpectedly disarming rendition of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”.