Kiki and Herb still have chemistry after all the years.
Kiki and Herb head to
Brooklyn Academy of Music
BY BOB KRASNER
Reports of the early demise of
Kiki and Herb, the now 91-year-old
lounge singer and her faithful accompanist,
were soundly crushed when the
battered but unbowed act returned to the
stage in 2016 after an eight-year absence,
selling out all their shows at Joe’s Pub to an
audience of dedicated fans. Those fans will
no doubt be fi lling the seats at the Brooklyn
Academy of Music when the pair perform
their latest seasonal tribute, “Kiki and Herb
SLEIGH at BAM.”
Before they get there though, an invite
only audience got a sneak peek as the
show was previewed at the tiny Parkside
Lounge, where the duo’s splendor was
on full display. Harking back to the early
years before Carnegie Hall and Broadway,
when small clubs were their only option
(this, in fact, being one of them) their
intimate performance was a fabulous
reminder of what it was like to experience
the wit, intelligence and musical
onslaught of their lubricated sensibilities
in their native setting.
While Herb has his solo spots, the stage
is dominated by Ms. DuRane who likes
to banter over Herb’s cocktail piano stylings
with a mix of nostalgia and current
events, tenderly reminiscing about old
friends such as Billie Holiday and Sylvia
Plath – who she called Sylvie – as in, “get
your head out of the oven Sylvie, we want
to make popcorn!”
Although their duets can sometimes
PHOTOS BY BOB KRASNER
sound more like duels and one has to
occasionally wonder about the thought
process that led them to include Radiohead’s
‘Creep’ in a medley of Christmas
tunes, there is no doubt that they have
a sincere dedication to the art of song.
And while it may not be a Radio City
Christmas spectacular, who needs it when
you’ve got Kiki? After all, as she points
out, “I’ve still got my legs!”
She’s got more than that, as longtime
fan (well, not that long) Amanda Rubin
points out. “What a showgirl,” she exclaimed.
“It was a joy to see her and Herb
back in the saddle. Ninety-one and still
hoofi ng! A wonderful blend of humor,
pathos, wit and disarming inebriation.”
Canadian Club whiskey must have
some pretty good preservative properties,
because, ladies and gentlemen, Kiki and
Herb have a habit of putting away a good
sized bottle during the set and that is on
top of whatever they’ve imbibed during
soundcheck. The years (and the alcohol)
have added character to Kiki’s voice, which
is especially poignant in a tune such as Dan
Fogelberg’s “Same Old Lang Syne,” delivered
after Kiki mused about her diffi cult
relationship with her daughter.
DuRane also spoke fondly of her
grandchild, Opioid (“we call them Opie
now”) and referenced the holiday season
with a long tale of a sacred cow, the
Vatican and the nature of show business,
which is surely what has kept them going
all these years. Even a tipsy improvised
piece for piano, sleigh bells and whiskey
bottle earned the audience’s rapt attention
and sustained applause.
“That was jazz, ladies and gentlemen,”
Kiki informed us.
While the back and forth vocalizations
in ‘Keep on Loving You’ revealed the obvious
affection between the two, it should
be noted their longstanding relationship
is strictly professional, probably due to
the fact that Herb prefers a gender other
than Kiki’s.
And, we should point out, though it’s
been rumored that rumored that Kiki
and Herb are actually cabaret superstars
Justin Vivian Bond and Kenny Mellman,
we tend to dismiss that as a QAnon alternative
fact, although we have noticed
they have never all been photographed
together.
Even the legendary Cher, allegedly,
had something to say about the notably
mythic Kiki and Herb. When asked about
the famous theory that “after a nuclear
war, the only living things left will be
… cockroaches and Cher,” she replied,
“I don’t know who said it, but I fi nd it
amusing. And it won’t be just me and the
bugs. Kiki and Herb will be there too.”
For more information or to purchase
tickets, visit www.bam.org/kiki.
It’s not a pretty sight when the whiskey runs out!
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