photo by Bruce-Michael Gelbert

Sherry Vine, Spickie Hilton & Jackie Dupree ........................................................................................................................................................................................

Singers Sherry Vine and Jackie Dupree, with Spickie Hilton, and their guests entertained the Grove audience royally, at the Ice Palace and at Cherry's, for four hours on July 21.

At the Ice Palace, assisted by DJ Chuck, Sherry gave us everything from classy to raunchy. She personalized Kander and Ebb's "When You're Good to Mama," from "Chicago," as "When You're Good to Sherry," and followed it with "Sherry-licious," her signature rap, explaining who she is. New to her repertory was "The Joker Is Me," from "The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd."

If Sherry confided, in a lively song, that, "I'm an ass eater" and shared her experience of a gastro-intestinal emergency, asking, "Corn-when did I eat corn?" she also gave us a dramatic, driven "Port of Amsterdam" and, ending, as she began, with Kander and Ebb, a scorching title song from "The Kiss of the Spiderwoman."

At Cherry's, assisted by DJ Manny, Jackie, working an elegant Jessye Norman-like look, cast her spell once more with "Unbreak My Heart," "Killing Me Softly," "I kissed a girl, I liked it," and "American Boy."

Jackie again presented her 'drag daughter,' Spickie Hilton, who breezed through "You make me feel like a natural woman," "Simply the Best," and "I'm every woman." Had she not told us, we never would have known she was singing with a cold.

After Jackie's tribute to Tina Turner, with "Private Dancer," "Proud Mary," and "What's love got to do with it?" she and Spickie joined forces, in one of those magical musical moments, assuring that "There can be miracles when you believe."

Dancer Skyla Versailles made guest appearances at both shows, offering "Stuff Like that There" and a raucous number from "Debbie Does Dallas, the Musical," in the first show, and "My Strongest Suit," from "Aida," and "I want to be a Rockette," with appropriately impressive high kicks, in the second.

Jason Cozmo was another of Jackie's guests, portraying Julie Andrews as Maria, in "Sound of Music," in the title song, "Do re mi," and "My Favorite Things," and Liza Minnelli, doing "Some People," from "Gyspy," "Liza with a Z," and "New York, New York."

Heaven also did a couple of numbers in what was announced as her last stage appearance here this season, before she returns to Florida.

Jackie capped this amazing night by bidding us farewell with a pairing of "I wanna dance with somebody, with somebody who lives me" and "Last dance, last chance for love."