!Viva 'Viva Variety'!
Calendare by Mark Mardon
A day or two earlier at Viva Variety 43, an appreciative crowd applauded several acts pulled out of the hat by showman Steve Murray. Funnymen PA Cooley and Drew Todd did a scene from 'Quite Contrary', in which two queens meet in the Castro and engage in snappy chiche-ridden repartee, checking each other out and employing such words as "brobdignanian".
Fresh Meat Productions, dancers Sean Dorsey and Mair Colbreath turned in a beautiful piece, with voice-over narrrating the experience of a new girl in the 4th grade class, bossy and magnetic, who mistakes Sean for a boy and asks for a kiss, prompting Dorsey (who is super boy-cute) to dance with Colbreath (playing the new girl) while musing on whether it's right to fool mother nature.
Vocalist Benn Bacot displayed his deep, rich rich bariton,s inging about what a difference a day makes. Tall, dignified, black, wearing hat and glasses, dapper in dark slacks and jacket over b/w-striped shirt, with white shoes, BAcot showed how smooth jazz can get. "You Don't Know What Love Is", he sang, and I believed him.
Closing the show were vocalist /songwriter/pianist Spencer Day and cellist/guitarist Yair Evnine, who rendered a couple of Day's songs and an outstanding cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", as smooth as k.d. lang's version.
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