By FRANK SCHECK
Last updated: 11:21 am
September 30, 2008
Posted: 2:45 am
September 30, 2008
THE performers who play Feinstein's are usually "of a certain age," but the current headliner is an exception.
Nikki Blonsky, who at 19 can't even order a cocktail there, is making her nightclub debut with songs from her best roles - Mrs. Lovett in "Sweeney Todd," Kate in "Kiss Me, Kate" and the title role of Bizet's "Carmen."
You probably missed them - they were, after all, at her Great Neck high school. What you will recognize her from is her exuberant turn as Tracy Turnblad in the movie "Hairspray," in which she held her own against John Travolta and Christopher Walken.
Here, the plus-size Blonsky displays her powerful pipes and winning personality in several numbers from the film, including the infectious "Good Morning Baltimore," plus songs by Frank Wildhorn, Melissa Etheridge, Bonnie Raitt and others.
While her interpretive skills don't measure up to her sheer vocal power - at times, it's like watching a precocious child belt out numbers at her parents' party - there's no denying her talent.
The set list doesn't always play to Blonsky's strengths; she would have been wise to avoid "Crazy," immortalized by Patsy Cline. But she does more than justice to a pull-out-all-the-stops number like "Don't Rain on My Parade," even if her frame of reference - the Linda Eder rendition, not Barbra Streisand's - is guaranteed to make most of us feel ancient.
NIKKI BLONSKY
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