I’m sorry to report that Dezur Kenna & Eric Johnson’s new show was not bad enough. It parodies acts so bad they’re unintentionally funny—they broadly play a smiley, un-hip middle-aged married singing duo Lieve & Needy (think a poor man’s Steve & Eydie with no business being in show business). They need more distinctive, nutty tics; the would-be odd characterizations seem to be a quirk-in-progress. Kenna & Johnson naturally sing strongly and that may work against the comic intent. Glimmers of potential are here as they gamely and lamely plow through songs, putting pep into pop that fits them like a glove five sizes too big. Some good ideas need to be expanded: references to their unimpressive gigs (The Plywood Room, The Corn Palace); killing a song with misguided over-use of gestures; glimpses of the marital squabbles beneath the veneer of devotion; using actual accompanist Emily Fellner as an over-enthused participant; regional accents and goofy exclamations like, “Yes, indeedly-doodle.” They cram a bunch of love songs into the mega-medley from Lounge Hell, segueing from “Cherish” to “My Cherie Amour” with all the smoothness of a Mack truck: that’s a start! But clueless, artless nightclub duos, nitwits putting glitz on old hits—it’s been done: “Saturday Night Live,” Pete ‘n’ Keely, cabaret (“Jonathan & Darlene Edwards”; Cashino)—so where does this leave Lieve & Needy but needing to find a way to find a unique variation on tacky and wacky? Can they indeedly-doodle do it? Very likely. Let’s hope for the worst.
Rob Lester
Cabaret Scenes
February 14, 2010
www.cabaretscenes.org
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