Sally Kellerman’s act is like the aftermath of a West Coast party. It’s just past midnight and the band is about to pack up; a windswept lady in an off-the-shoulders top sways in from the beach and over to piano. She starts to hum a bluesy tune; the musicians shrug their shoulders and take their cue. But it isn’t L.A. after midnight, it’s “New York at the tail end of rush hour,” the M*A*S*H star bemoaned at her seven o’clock show.

Her charm does not reveal itself until you realize she knows exactly what she’s doing—a pithy mumble between songs, a nervous tug at her costume, a playful stumble in her high heeled shoes. Luckily, she has the voice and good taste to carry it all off. Though billed as an evening of the blues, the program cruised from songbook standards like “I’ve Got a Crush on You” to a cool “Love Potion No. 9” to Bill Cantos’s little-known “Do I Ever?” backed by an able trio of Tardo Hammer (piano), Jon Roche (bass) and Eddie Ornowski (drums).

With the gravely low notes of Bessie Smith and the nonchalant phrasing of Blossom Dearie well in hand, you knew this was no casual party performer, but a singer attuned to her craft and aware of herself.  “If you don’t like this song, just grin and bear it,” Kellerman crooned, “and if the shoe fits, go on and wear it.” Kellerman’s own shoes were off early in the evening, and so—I confess—were mine.

Patrick Monahan
Cabaret Scenes
April 1, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org