Heaven is Eartha

At seventy-eight years of age, most performers — if they’re still performing at all — are getting by on their reputations. Not Eartha Kitt. She opened earlier this week at the Café Carlyle, and anyone who wants to see brilliance in action must catch this show before it closes on July 2.

Kitt first made a name for herself in New York in the revue New Faces of 1952. In other words, she has been a star for more than 50 years, yet one feels young in her presence because she seems ageless. She stills plays the sex kitten and, amazingly, still gets away with it. That’s partly because her tongue is planted firmly in her cheek, but Kitt has also got the gams (and everything else) to make this act real instead of merely nostalgic. A master of comic timing, Kitt seduces her audience, particularly the male patrons seated at ringside. She is famous for her long pauses as she expectantly and fiercely stares at one gentleman or another, waiting for him to respond, then tosses off a hilarious one-liner.

Kitt’s well-known purr is very much at the heart of her persona; her throaty voice is still exciting and ripe with the sound of sex, but this is not meant to imply that all she offers is an evening full of campy innuendoes. Kitt is a wily and intelligent performer who offers an act bursting with surprises; foremost among them is her Japanese version of “Come on-a My House,” in which she takes the famous novelty number made famous by Rosemary Clooney and ups the ante to cosmically comic proportions.

The centerpiece of the show is Kitt’s performance of five dramatic songs in a row, beginning with her inspirational rendition of Edith Piaf’s signature ballad, “La Vie En Rose.” The dramatic arc that builds from there is a musical contemplation of the cycle of love: The romantic “Lilac Wine” segues into an urgent performance of “What is This Thing Called Love,” followed by a classic ode to love on the wane, “If You Go Away.” Kitt ends this show-stopping sequence with a passionate performance of another Piaf tune, “Hymn to Love”.

She tops off the show with another musical arc, nailing us to the wall with three songs that are fundamentally autobiographical: “When the World Was Young,” “It Was a Very Good Year” (with some new lyrics that refer specifically to her life), and the powerful “Here’s to Life.” You will not find a better-crafted nightclub act nor a more glorious performer.

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All in the Genes

A true renaissance man, Richmond Shepard is a master mime, actor, playwright, theatrical impresario, critic, and painter. More to the point, he has been notably successful in all of these varied arenas. His latest endeavor, Designer Genes, displays several of his skills: Shepard is the show’s author, lead actor, and provider of the production’s art work. The latter is of no small importance as Shepard plays Frederick Bronsky, a famous abstract artist, and his canvasses are an integral part of the set design.

When a young and beautiful art critic (Shellee Nicols) comes to interview Bronsky, the two quickly find that they’ve met their match in more ways than one. Although there is a significant age gap between them, they fall in love — and then something wonderfully unexpected happens. When the new girlfriend meets Bronsky’s son, Richard (Christopher Kromer), we guess that the handsome, unhappy son will eventually end up with her, but the play goes somewhere else entirely. Bravo for that!

The script is heavily laced with sharp dialogue; the characters toss off clever lines left and right, though all of these one-liners do eventually make the piece feel more written than lived in the moment. Ryan Davis’s plodding direction doesn’t help matters. Still, Shepard is entirely convincing in his role, and his two co-stars give solid performances.

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[To contact the Siegels directly, e-mail them at siegels@theatermania.com.]