Leanne Borghesi: Lush

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Leanne Borghesi

Lush

Feinstein’s at the Nikko, San Francisco, CA, August 19, 2015

Reviewed by Steve Murray for Cabaret Scenes

Leanne BorghesiSan Francisco has enjoyed the talents of Leanne Borghesi for quite some time, whether it’s as her alter ego Anita Cocktail, with her vocal group The B.O.O.B.s (Busty, Outrageous, Over-the-Top, Broads, Singing), or supporting local AIDS events. Spoiled as we are with this remarkable artist, we’re always in the mood for more.

Borghesi displays great comic flair along the lineage of legends like Fanny Brice, Frances Faye and Carol Burnett. Big and bawdy is right in Leanne’s wheelhouse and, using variations on the theme of lust, allow her to work her magic on Ross Parker’s “Burn My Candle (At Both Ends)”—an early Shirley Bassey recording that was banned for being too risqué, her ode to her obsession with costume jewelry in “Diamonds Are Forever” (John Barry and Don Black’s title theme to the James Bond movie) and “I Want to Be Evil,” a huge hit for Eartha Kitt. She mines the gold out of “I Am a Vamp” (recorded by Ute Lemper), Avenue Q’s “You Can Be as Loud as the Hell You Want (When You’re Making Love)” and Tom Lehrer’s wickedly delicious “Masochism Tango.”

Borghesi isn’t a one–trick pony, oh no. She can belt with the best in her clear, sharp vibrato. A lovely, subtle interpretation of Billy Strayhorn’s “Lush Life” runs into “You Go to My Head” (J. Fred Coots/Haven Gillespie), then another Barry/Black/Bassey-sung theme song, “Moonraker,” showing her softer, more reflective side.
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Dame Shirley Bassey is featured prominently in the set, both with the aforementioned theme songs and adding a less over-the-top rendition of “This Is My Life” and a sassy “History Repeating.” The set maneuvered easily through samba, swing, pop and ballads, highlighting the singer’s wide range. The sold-out crowd, hungry for a Borghesi feast, ate her up.
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Steve Murray

Always interested in the arts, Steve was encouraged to begin producing and, in 1998, staged four, one-man vehicles starring San Francisco's most gifted performers. In 1999, he began the Viva Variety series, a live stage show with a threefold mission to highlight, support, and encourage gay and gay-friendly art in all the performance forms, to entertain and document the shows, and to contribute to the community by donating proceeds to local non-profits. The shows utilized the old variety show style popularized by his childhood idol Ed Sullivan. He’s produced over 150 successful shows, including parodies of Bette Davis’s gothic melodramedy Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte and Joan Crawford’s very awful Trog. He joined Cabaret Scenes 2007 and enjoys the writing and relationships he’s built with very talented performers.