Cherry Grove’s own Doris Dear brought her cabaret show “More Gurl Talk,” to the Community House on July 25, assisted by Stage Director Lina Koutrakos and Musical Director and pianist Bobby Peaco, and paid loving tribute to her family and, in particular, to her mother Taffy, in song and story, taking us back to the early 1960s—ah, the memories!
Doris introduced “my journey to becoming America’s perfect housewife” with “I Enjoy Being a Girl,” from “Flower Drum Song,” and shared a zesty “I Was Born to Entertain,” from “Ruthless! the Musical,” which she said that she sang for her parents’ guests. Her first trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with her mother, on “the day I was becoming a grown-up lady,” inspired her to sing “How Lovely to Be a Woman,” from “Bye Bye Birdie,” breathlessly, eagerly.
Doris’ bibles, during her youth in “beautiful Staten Island,” were TV Guide (cue Gidget’s “If you’re in doubt about angels being real”) and Better Homes and Gardens (with a back cover ad for Crisco), leading to a sweetly-sung “Somewhere That’s Green,” from “Little Shop of Horrors,” to describe her upbringing. She sincerely saluted her parents, Taffy and Duke, and their devotion to each other, with “You’re My World.”
Our diva recalled the 1964-1965 World’s Fair—which some of us remember—and cited a 1959 magazine that juxtaposed a recipe for strawberry shortcake with advice about dieting. She sang an ode to the classic restaurant of the era “Schrafft’s (there is a tingle to the name)” and read us some of the outlandish dishes on the menu.
Elegant in her second act peacock skirt and shiny lavender blouse, Doris emphasized comfort, but also acknowledged disappointment, singing, “Coffee, ham and eggs/I could be your diner.” Doris headed for the big, busy city, when she grew up, and marveled at “Another Hundred People,” from “Company,” that she found there.
Following in her mother’s footsteps Doris segued from “(All I am is) Just a Housewife,” from “Working, the Musical,” into “I’m Becoming My Mother.” Recalling darker years, near the end of her mother’s life, she touched us with a plangent, full-throated “Mama, a Rainbow,” from “Minnie’s Boys,” but ended on a cheerful note with “Girl Talk.”
“More Gurl Talk” was presented by DeForest Theatricals and the Arts Project of Cherry Grove. Catch “The Doris Dear Christmas Special,” at the Triad Theater, on West 72nd Street, in Manhattan, on December 19, 20 or 21 at 7 p.m.