Famous in San Francisco, the award-winning Veronica Klaus lavished her New York audience with an unbridled ardor.  Miss Klaus, a striking Valkyrie, was tall, blond and stacked, part Veronica Lake, a dash of Kathleen Turner and one hundred percent artist.

From the moment she opened her mouth to sing I sighed with that rarest type of contentment.  Veronica’s vocals were simply without peer in today’s typical line up.  Just as important, the songs were all winners.

Klaus created a nostalgia that was palpable, supplying us with the “Pre-Mod” feel of a 1961 world on the edge of change, but not quite there yet.  All the meat was not quite on the table as in the times to follow; this was the end of the line in a world that would soon be liberated to an effect that is still questioned to this day.

Tunes such as “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” Keeper of the Flame” and “Love Me or Leave Me” were sung with a voice as rich as molasses, yet clear and without affectation.  Her voice enveloped one like a warm blanket and each word was delivered straight to your heart.  Jazz, blues and pop were all blended in to a cohesive and occasionally naughty program.

As if that was not enough, this lady was the musician’s musician.  An arrangement  of “Cry Me a River,” the likes of which I have never heard, started out with a quietly dramatic, breathy sounding rubato, with Veronica then counting in her band into a Latin Funk Frenzy as Brian Newman’s sizzling trumpet literally cried in response to her plebian beseeching.

In addition to the standards and some lesser known gems, Veronica gifted the audience with two original songs (my favorite being “Black Diamond Days”) that gave a glimpse into her metamorphous and the unusual journey she has made.  Without ever announcing it out loud, she alluded to the fact that she was a T,T,T----stuttering that she was a tuba player but also inviting the audience to come to the conclusion that she had had gender reassignment, a fact she celebrates in her autobiographical show, Crown Jewels.

Her (“That’s All”) finale was a beautifully articulated jazz take on this evergreen standard, with its creative embellishments on the melody musical enough to stand proudly in the company of a Carmen McRae or Doris Day. Miss Klaus’s show was totally life affirming and filled with the type of humanity that only someone who has been an outsider looking in can provide.

I would advise all civilians as well as any performers to check her out to see how real cabaret is done and learn from it.  Happily she will be returning to The Duplex in Something Cool” June 22 and 24^th.

Melody Breyer-Grell
Cabaret Scenes
April 4, 2009
www.cabaretscenes.org