Sharon McNight cut her cabaret teeth in the noisy, spirited San Francisco saloons of the early ’80s developing a large, supportive gay following that she pays homage to in brassy entertaining style. She has been around and around the block, with a career paralleling and intertwining deep within the AIDS pandemic. It’s made her tough and deeply emotional, with the bittersweet joy of a survivor. Her banter is frank, off-color and very, very funny. Her stories, moving.

With her rubber-faced mugging, she’s like Betty Boop on steroids. McNight mines gold with Mary Liz McNarmara’s song “Bacon,” a ode to vegetarianism that takes a 180 degree turn to extoll the virtues of sizzling bacon. The schmaltzy “Wind Beneath My Wings” becomes “Contempt Beneath My Feet” dedicated to the couples in the audience. Her signature five-minute The Wizard of Oz tribute knocks ‘em dead.

McNight, no stranger to a great country/western tune, easily delivers “Desperado” and the cute “Your Sweet and Shiny Eyes,” which evolves into a hula-laced sing-along. Randy Newman’s “Guilty” is transformed into a torch song sung with such conviction that it becomes a haunting self-revelation. If she’s acting, give her an award. The show’s highlights were two Craig Carnelia numbers: the warmly nostalgic “The Kid Inside” (Is There Life After High School?) and the beautiful “Just a Housewife” (Working)—bittersweet self-examination at its finest. Here, Sharon shows the vulnerable woman behind the larger than life façade. She sparkles in these quiet introspective moments that draw us in with their universal appeal.

Steve Murray
Cabaret Scenes
June 6, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org