Klea Blackhurst: One of the Girls – The Words and Music of Jerry Herman
Almost every vocalist can be and has been compared to another. Klea Blackhurst is unique. Sure, you can hear open-lung muscle like that of Ethel Merman, but this artist brings warmth where the icon expressed little. She understands nuance Merman didn’t display. Tonight is not just galvanizing and droll (oh, there are stories!), but moving. I reviewed Girls in 2019 and recall some of the patter, but there are changes and impact has swelled.
For Blackhurst, Immersion in all things Jerry Herman began with playing Mame at Cottonwood High School in a production that rivaled the scale of D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance. (She makes fun of her naïveté.)Years later, she would act Dolly Levi in the Fiftieth Anniversary Production of Hello, Dolly! at Goodspeed Opera House receiving congratulations from its author and what was tantamount to welcome as one of his “girls.” From my 2019 review.
“Just Leave Everything to Me” (Hello ,Dolly! the film) Blackhurst sings as if asking us to put ourselves in her hands. One does, in fact, submit.
Jerry Herman was a single child raised by doting parents. His family played music together. Friday nights mom and dad attended Broadway shows, eventually bringing their son. The first outing, to see Ethel Merman in Annie Get Your Gun, cemented his future at 13. Jerry returned home and played what he’d heard by ear.
Producer David Merrick hired Herman to write Hello, Dolly! when the latter was a mere 28. The young man’s successful “Israeli operetta” (Merrick) Milk and Honey had caught his eye. Would he be able to deliver “Americana?” History answered.
“Put On Your Sunday Clothes” opens with rhythmic bass straddling Broadway and swing, an appealing arrangement. Blackhurst bounces. “It Only Takes a Moment” downshifts. Hand on her breast fingers splayed, eyes scrunch. The song emerges saturated with hope, before not after love arrives. Phrasing is very much her own.
“Just Go to the Movies” (A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine) is buoyant despite Herman’s wretched time on the coast. Expecting deference after several big Broadway successes, he found himself ignored during their filming. “Go see Fay Wray in the paw of the ape./Watch Errol Flynn shooting his bow,/Just go to the movies,/Just go to a picture show, oh…” Blackhurst sings spritzing like a shaken bottle of champagne. She’s a carnival pitchman.
“I Don’t Want to Know” (Dear World) wafts on a lilting music box arrangement. Performance is trenchant. Its polar opposite arrives with “World, Take Me Back,” a song tailored to Merman as Dolly Levi and cut until the icon agreed to star- as the show’s 13th lead: “No more peeking in the keyhole/I intend to have my own key…” Both are raw, demonstrative. “He wrote songs that just seem to ‘be’, songs that say more with less.” Blackhurst’s gestures extend from lyric and feeling.
“My Type” was given her by its author when she asked Herman whether he had something in particular he thought would suit her: “My type is coming back/…They’ve gone through/Plain Janes and helpless mission girls/…Flappers and Prohibition girls,/ Gina, Lena, Donna, Lana/ Those who won’t and those who wanna…” Great song. Here’s a heart on a platter.
After the failures of Dear World and Mack and Mabel, Herman was sure his kind of music was done. Then he saw a little French film called La Cage aux Folles. It would be an old fashioned show with two loving men as leads. “The very next thing that happens is the AIDS crisis. A lot of the cast died as did the man Jerry loved…He himself tested positive.” (Herman lived many more years, passing in 2019 at 88.)
“If before the dawn, this world should crack/Somebody’s gotta put the pieces back…” (“I’ll Be Here Tomorrow”- Grand Tour) leads us to a soul baring “I Am What I Am.” Arms wide, Blackhurst exults. At this point, we’d follow her anywhere.
For many years Herman said he hated the song “Dear World” which was written under duress. Later, Blackhurst tells us, he was troubled that its time had come: “So make your recovery quick, world/We’re sick of having a sick world/We want you dancing tomorrow afternoon…” It is, in fact, an anthem for today.
Despite acknowledging Jerry Herman’s persistent optimism, almost half the show is comprised of lyrics that hope, struggle, mourn, and pray. They’re gutsy, timely, and often feel intimate. Klea Blackhurst’s unconditional performance does them justice. Mercifully, we’re left with “It’s Today!” (Mame)
Hannah Jane Photography
Klea Blackhurst: One of the Girls – The Words and Music of Jerry Herman
MD/Piano – Michael Rice
Bass – Ray Kilday; Drums – Aaron Russell
Part of The Box Set Edition, a continuing monthly series
Chelsea Table and Stage
152 West 26th Street
NEXT: Sunday April 13: Autumn in New York – Vernon Duke’s Broadway
