Justin Vivian Bond: Love Is Crazy at Feinstein’s at the Nikko
Justin Vivian Bond: Love Is Crazy
Feinstein’s at the Nikko, San Francisco, CA, June 21, 2014
Reviewed by Steve Murray for Cabaret Scenes
Mx Bond, a trans person and cult figure here in San Francisco and New York, returned to the scene of early incarnations to premiere a new show Love Is Crazy, a comically wistful look at love and aging. And every V show is a scene—part Brechtian counterculture cabaret, part pop satire, and always full of jazz-like, searingly funny monologues. Singing “The Look of Love” with faux ‘60s sincerity, V launched into a re-enactment of Angie Dickinson and Burt Bacharach’s ludicrous TV commercials for Martini & Rossi, which free-associates into a story on V’s tongue-in-cheek heroine Claudine Longet, Andy Williams’s ex-wife known infamously for the death of lover Spider Sabich. It’s a smart riff
on notoriety and fame for fame’s sake. For Vivian, the ‘60s died in 1983 when Angie and Burt divorced!
V sings in a husky, throaty style, which is a goof match the 1970s San Francisco hustler scene epic “Golden Age of Hustlers” and Duncan Sheik’s “Sentimental Song,” performed by V in The Classic Stage Company’s production of Bertolt Brecht’s A Man’s a Man, playing the role of The Widow Begbick. Bond is a captivating performer, luring you into songs like an ancient siren. Jimmy Webb’s “The Moon’s a Harsh Mistress,” The Cure’s hit, the haunting “Lovesong” and an encore of Fleetwood Mac’s hit “Rhiannon (Will You Ever Win)” are shaman-like incantations, rather than just cabaret filler. When going up on a lyric, V looked to Emmy Award-winning composer Lance Horne for help, who mouthed the words. Without missing a beat, Bond shoots back “Don’t mouth it, I can’t read lips.” A lost lyric or mistaken key is just another excuse for Bond to go way, way off on a brilliant digression (a supposedly true story of Peggy Lee carving grooves into her acrylic fingernails to hide her valium onstage).
Justin Vivian Bond is a one of a kind and always has been. A trailblazer. V does exactly what V wants, when V wants, and shines brightly while doing it.
Category: Cabaret Reviews, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Cabaret Reviews
