Profile

For the uninitiated, the lounge act from hell is said to have begun 40 years ago, when "boozy chantoosie" Kiki DuRane linked up with her accompanist Herb, the "gay Jew 'tard." A send-off concert last year seemed to mark their demise, but clearly it takes more than a sold-out night at Carnegie Hall to kill these two. Kiki & Herb: Alive on Broadway finds Kiki (Justin Bond) back at the microphone, supported by the piano stylings of Herb (Kenny Mellman) and a bottle and a half of whiskey. Bond and Mellman have forgone a director, and it shows. The act is a sprawling, shapeless, two-plus-hour epic. This means it'll take some fortitude to find all the terrific things in it, like the "folk music" of Public Enemy's "Don't Believe the Hype" or their Wagnerian rendition of Gnarls Barkley’s "Crazy." Even better is their chatter between the songs, from old favorites ("Time to make mama pretty," says Kiki, reaching for her glass) to up-to-the-minute commentary ("You don't want to see Kiki without her sports beverage," she says of the new airport regulations). All the same, to the extent that Broadway retains any claim to being the shop window for the best performers in town, it's exactly where these two belong. — Jeremy McCarter

Related Stories

New York Magazine Reviews

• Jeremy McCarter's Full Review (8/28/06)