Tonya Pinkins, a force of nature, took on Ethel Waters for her sold-out show at 54 Below.  This passionate homage followed Waters’s life from poverty to Broadway and Hollywood triumphs. As she proved in Caroline, or Change, Pinkins does nothing half way. She immersed herself in Waters’s songs, not imitating her but using her entire body and her rich voice to illuminate “Shake That Thing,” “I Got Rhythm” and “Cabin in the Sky.”  She gave Sophie Tucker, Waters’s mentor, a shout out with “Last of the Red Hot Mamas” (feisty and sexy) and the Yiddish “Eli, Eli” (heartbreakingly eloquent).

Pinkins spoke of the direly poor childhood of Waters. “His Eye Is on the Sparrow,” a beautiful gospel song, was supposedly what Waters sang to her dying mother. “Lil Black Boy” was the moving response to a horrible tale of a lynching while Waters was on tour.  Ironically, Irving Berlin’s “Suppertime” dealt with the very same subject in As Thousands Cheer in which Waters made history, integrating Broadway.  From that show also came “Heat Wave,” sung with a saucy sexuality.  “Stormy Weather,” written for her by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler, was another passionate high point.

Musical Director Barry Levitt on piano, Dick Sarpola on bass and Walden Ricks on trumpet produced an amazing palette of sounds.

Joel Benjamin
Cabaret Scenes
August 27, 2012
www.cabaretscenes.org