Lovely chanteuse Bianca Leigh, sounding as terrific as ever, returned to Cherry Grove on July 18 as featured performer on Cherry’s Dining with the Divas series. Kevin Hammond was the DJ.

Bianca seduced us with sultry opening numbers “Whatever Lola Wants,” from “Damn Yankees;” “Big Spender,” from “Sweet Charity;” and “Blues in the Night.” With Bastille Day having just past, she went on to Edith Piaf song “La Vie en Rose,” in French, and treating us to a dramatic reading of the words of the first half of the song, in the repeat.

After a dulcet rendition of Duke Ellington’s “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore,” Bianca offered a sizzling and swinging “Le Jazz Hot,” from “Victor/Victoria,” and paid tribute to Cher—whom our artist used to watch on television when “a Cub Scout,” she confided—by singing “The Way of Love.”
Bianca continued with a “Broadway Baby,” from “Follies,” more contemplative than belted, until the big ending. She got hot as she sang, “Fly me to the moon,” with a luminous climactic high note. She invited her dear sister Porsche to join her in a beautiful, impromptu duet of “Miss Celie’s Blues,” from the film “The Color Purple,” before becoming poor, delusional Norma Desmond, from “Sunset Boulevard,” still riveting us “With One Look.”