Review: Actress Kathleen Turner Makes A Surprise Transformation Into Kathleen Turner The Singer In FINDING MY VOICE At Town Hall

Heigh-Ho, My Merry Rainbow Tribe! Bobby Patrick, your RAINBOW Reviewer here. Putting the silent T in cabareT to bring you all the T!

So, my dearlings, of the dozen or so people in this world Bobby could list here who should NOT need to find their voice, Kathleen Turner would be 6 of them. Possessing one of the most recognizable speaking instruments of her generation, one could argue that Ms. Turner's vocal prowess and oral interpretations are the most fascinating and engaging facets of her acting arsenal. In the meta-verse as well, she has always been an outspoken advocate of being outspoken about the damn things we should all speak out about. But Thursday night in her FINDING MY VOICE cabaret, produced by Ken Davenport and deftly directed by Andy Gale at venerable Town Hall, Ms. Turner walked her audience through an on-stage memoir of her life and career stopping off 14 times (plus an encore) to regale the hall with song. Now for those to whom Ms. Turner's musical machinations are a surprise, FMV is not only her obligatory "an actor's life" retrospective but an exploration of talents she has always wanted to nurture. Singing is basic to us all, but not all of us have what it takes to do it in public. "But WAIT Bobby!" we can almost hear you cry, "You mean KathleenBodyHeatTurner, Jessica Rabbitt, Barbara Rose - That Kathleen Turner? She of the husk so deep it would make Bea Arthur tremble? That Kathleen Turner? She Sings?" She do indeed my lambs. Now if you read our boss, Stephen Mosher (and we certainly do hope you read Stephen Mosher) then you may well have seen his review of FMV from last year just before lockdown. Far be it from little Bobby to add anything to Mr. Mosher's musings, but like the rest of us, this fine American actress had to take a pause in life just as she was getting her act together, hence Thursday's night out at Town Hall.

In theatrical parlances, Kathleen Turner has a singing voice with a lot of character. Many stars have made many a meal ticket out of their eccentric larynxes and with FMV this actress demonstrated the hard work she has put in recently in folding her whiskey and cigarettes production into a powerful, tuneful instrument. Compared ofttimes to the legendary Lauren Bacall - who won 2 Tonys for musicals with a voice that was more character than notes - Turner sang forth several powerful surprises during her near 2-hour show. Now, to be clear, Ms. Turner has approximately 5 really good notes, but the rest of them she sings with great distinction. Her musicality is en pointe and she is always on the pitch but it is her innate storytelling ability that raises her songs to heights that belong solely to her and her listeners. For an actress like her, the stories are everything, and what she conveys in song enhances the tale she speaks regarding her life. You see, my lambs La Turner has done theatre, movies, and television, been on stage at the Met - IN AN OPERA, and danced for Martha Graham herself, basically, she has done everything in show business except ride the elephant on opening day at the circus and still she wishes to explore new territory in life and storytelling. And what stories she told, that of her itinerant life moving across the globe as her diplomat father received new postings, learning Spanish, which she speaks and sings fluently, living in Cuba and getting out of there when things got bad, saying goodbye to her father who died when she was 17, growing and maturing as a person and an artist until she could bring everything she is to the present moment - this is the real home run of FMV. An actress who has always preferred craft over psyche taxing method acting (the lady actually disdains that process) her theatrical flare PLUS her life experience combine in her imagination in ways that are fascinating to watch and hear and that conjure OUR emotions. As a matter of fact my dear readers, conjuring is what the lady does. The images she conveys along with the notes she sings in oldies like BROTHER CAN YOU SPARE A DIME, MOONSHINE LULLABY, ANYWHERE I HANG MY HAT IS HOME, and even SWEET KENTUCKY HAM appear in the mind's eye like carefully painted portraits that one breathes in as well as beholds. Her foggy voice on LONDON TOWN and her tear-inducing rendition of SEND IN THE CLOWNS after talking about her battle with the ravages of rheumatoid arthritis were absolute highlights of the night. Her encoring with YOU CAN'T LOSE, seemed to send the message that, given her life and times, she is a performer with nothing to lose and so why not SING... and we all should be glad she did.

With superb support given her by her M/D Arranger Mark Janas, Guitarists Sean Harkness, and Bassist Ritt Henn the musical interludes along with the chemistry she demonstrated with these fine players were yet another testament to her hard work to become a singer. Once or twice through the evening, she needed a quick prompt from Janas, but they all took it in stride and made art out of the gaffs. It is this little Rainbow Boy's hope that Kathleen Turner knows, without a doubt, that she has found her voice all over again and that her show FINDING MY VOICE will be staged across this land because she gets...

4 Out Of 5 rainbows.

Photos By Jeremy Daniel

To post a comment, you must register and login.