Review: AN EVENING WITH EARTHA KITT LIVE! at The Velvet Martini Lounge

An Evening with Eartha Kitt Live! was a sublime premiere cabaret show at the The Velvet Martini Lounge, Upstairs at Vitello’s, in Studio City on August 20.  I hope this unique, delectable night, conceived, written by, and starring Thomasina Gross, will be the first of many, after this glamorous inaugural premiere.

An Evening with Eartha Kitt Live! is something truly unforgettable to be savored, the kind of remarkable live performance that you know, even while it is happening, that you are going to treasure for years.  Broadway star Thomasina Gross more than plays Eartha Kitt — she summons her, like a conjuring magic trick, with all her kittenish playfulness, her intelligence, her elegance, her distinctive breathy voice, her crisp, entirely self-constructed Anglo-Euro accent, her biting humor and confident, joyous, full-throated sexuality.  Eartha Kitt was such a unique, mischievous, and irrepressible creation that it is easy to over-play her into caricature or drag-vamping (quite fun in its own right, but something else entirely).  But Thomasina Gross goes so deep into Eartha that she creates a living, breathing woman, vulnerable, and gloriously human — as well as a one-of-a-kind performer and outrageous, sophisticated, delectable sex symbol.  She feels entirely real and entirely perfect.  I never wanted An Evening with Eartha Kitt Live! to end.  

A true miracle is how Thomasina Gross manages to recreate Eartha Kitt’s iconic, breathy, cut-class, deeply unique singing style, with her impish fusion of piquant wit, teasing pampered self-indulgence, and rebellious, luscious allure.  I was in heaven listening to Thomasina Gross sing iconic Eartha songs “Let's Do It”, “Let's Fall in Love”, “Just an Old Fashioned Girl”, “Santa Baby”, and “C’est Si Bon”.  With inspired musical direction by a charismatic Eli Baumgarten (also on keys), the marvelous live band with James Gallardo, Brian Cudina, and James Fall keeps things sparkling, sophisticated, and utterly delightful.

The sublime costumes by Ryan Jordan deserve an entire review in themselves.  Costuming nowadays often feels like a lost art, but the costumes of An Evening with Eartha Kitt Live! are the evocation of an earlier era of sensuality, unabashed femininity and elegance, while also, rather miraculously, feeling fresh and modern.  There are jaw-droppingly spectacular goddess gowns, luxe wraps, and slinky elbow-length gloves, with the kind of sumptuous, unbridled glamor and perfection that I associate with the design brilliance Cecil Beaton brought to costuming Audrey Hepburn in My Fairy Lady.  Hair and wigs by Christopher Enlow and makeup by Darian Darling are likewise flawless, sexy, and glamorous.  

In a generally perfect show, directed by Anthony Leones and produced by Keturah Hamilton, I would change a few things here and there.  The opening songs sung by an awkward Sheldon Craig fell a bit flat and diminished the bubbly liveliness of the evening.  Dashing musical director Eli Baumgarten seems like he would be a better emcee, or perhaps the gorgeous, glamorous producer Keturah Hamilton.  An Evening with Eartha Kitt Live! assumes that we know quite a bit about Eartha Kitt, her hit songs, her media appearances, and her life, but it would be beneficial for the show to find a way to organically introduce more information about Eartha, her biography, and her impressive list of achievements for the Eartha-uninitiated.  A video clip of Thomasina Gross, recreating a famous interview where Eartha Kitt scoffs at the idea of compromising in a relationship, seems misguided and unnecessary.  

The morose, self-pitying ending song “All By Myself” deserves to be changed to be something more triumphant, so that the show does not feel like an effervescent glass of champagne going flat at the end.  I do not associate Eartha Kitt with the kind of incessant, self-destructive hauntedness of many a talented diva, like Judy Garland.  I see Earth Kitt thriving in an impossibly long career and legendary life — from an outcast, abandoned childhood foraging for food on a failing sharecropper’s farm in South Carolina in the 1920s and 30s (most probably the product of her teenage mother’s rape), to being celebrated by Orson Welles as the “the most exciting woman on earth” in 1950, to having dozens of hit songs on the radio, starring as Catwoman on television in the 1960s and even voicing iconic Disney villain Yzma in Disney's animated film The Emperor's New Groove in 2000.  I think this delightful show, and Eartha’s legendary life, deserves a big blowout of a finish, a celebratory, rejoicing number like "C'est Si Bon", for a trailblazing artist who refused to be held back in any way.

This was my first time at The Velvet Martini Lounge, upstairs at Vitello’s in Studio City.  It is like entering into a magic box of a secret world up there, a smoky-feeling, dimly-lit treasure cove, vintage-inspired and romantic, with lots of little cozy nooks and alcoves where you want to lose yourself for hours.  Since I eat largely plant based, old-school traditional Italian restaurants typically scare me, but miraculously, Vitellio’s provided me with an utterly delicious, satisfying vegan chicken parmesan and infinite number of magnificent, addictive sparkling grapefruit spritzers.

Not only was The Velvet Martini Lounge literally tailor-made for a glamorous, intimate cabaret show like An Evening with Eartha Kitt Live!, but it is an incredibly enticing venue I cannot wait to return to.

I hope that this inaugural premiere of An Evening with Eartha Kitt Live! is the first of many performances of this truly spectacular, unforgettable cabaret show.

Photos supplied by publicist Philip Sokoloff

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