Gina Gershon's "In Search of Cleo" turns out to be...the original cast album for her "off Broadway" show. Maybe. Sort of. I saw her perform it recently, and I'm still not sure.
As mentioned a few weeks ago on this blog, Gina's album is an odd mix of honky-tonk, ballads, one catchy rock number ("House of Woe") and some designated drivers intended to bring in her campier fans, including the opener, "Lucky Lips." That Gina-appropriate tune is not on her CD, by the way since it's a cover of a Ruth Brown classic. Elizma Theron's version on her CD "Lapaside" is closest to how Gina does it.
"In Search of Cleo" is an 80 minute show...a dramatic (sound effects, off-stage voices) monologue about her search for her lost black cat, a male named Cleo who has an effeminate purr. Her story periodically segues into songs that don't mention the cat, don't push along the plot, and seem to be there because she's not quite a monologist and doesn't have a full concert of original songs.
The great "House of Woe" arrives after a tense four-minute prison phone call as a male con-artist (nicely voiced by Gina) seems to have a clue to where to find the missing feline. Anyone paying attention to the lyrics (I think that might only be me) would see that the song has nothing to do with the story, but the tone of her singing hits and holds a nice note of rueful, cynical depreciation for human nature.
The audience didn't seem to care if the songs matched the spoken passages or vice versa. At times they totally missed a lot of Gina's jokes (like the one about staying up late at night creating an "ambient environment" by taking Ambien). What they did like, was Gina. Did it really matter what else was going on? No, not really. That was Gina Gershon, live, 3D, just a few feet away from us.
Through the 80 minutes, Gina held center stage with a defiant cool, not breaking a sweat, and not taking herself too seriously as she played the ukulele for a few numbers, twanged a jew's harp, and donned electric guitar without pretending it was difficult or erotic to play one. Her back-up band served her well, as did the obligatory racially mixed and muddled backing trio of bosomy babes dancing and sometimes singing along. They were most evident on "Pretty Girls on Prozac," the intended showstopper.
Gina did a good amount of cursing during the show but, despite all the talk about her cat, resisted even a single "pussy" joke. After her encore, as the lights softly came up, the venue did play "Pussy Pussy Pussy," the ribald lost cat 78 rpm novelty by the old C&W swing band the Lightcrust Doughboys. "Here pussy pussy pussy" isn't how Gina tried calling Cleo (how she did it was a vocal surprise all its own...as one might expect from the woman who voiced the cartoon version of Catwoman).
Since you already got "House of Woe" some weeks ago, and posting a second track from her CD would be rude, you get...yes...the ruder "PUSSY PUSSY PUSSY' by the Lightcrust Doughboys. "Is this your cat?" "No, my pussy has no stripes, besides, it ain't never smelled like that!"
PUSSY PUSSY PUSSY
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