LAURAL MEADE

Fri., Oct. 13.  LAURAL MEADE, in “Ms. Tucker Will See You Now.”  A longtime member of the theater faculty at Occidental College, playwright and musical performer Ms. Meade has sung in Southern California venues “both sacred and profane,” and directs a choir for The Secret City.  Her vocal musicianship has turned heads at The Gardenia Open Mike, where we were delighted to learn that she has penned this performance piece in which she exposits Sophie Tucker, “the Last of the Red Hot Mamas,” arguably the most popular entertainer of Tucker’s day, in a bawdy cabaret exploration of Tucker’s extraordinary personal life, career, and risqué song catalog.   Ms. Meade continues to perfect this brilliantly written and performed show, which, because its subject “worked Blue,” is constructed not for the faint of heart nor for the pearl-clutching pretenders of easy offence.  Using hilarity as pedagogue’s tool, Ms. Mead also mobilizes impressive musical forces to allow her audience to conclude the evening “educationally enriched.”  For those who were awed by, and for those unlucky enough to have missed, Ms. Meade’s previous shows, this booking offers the opportunity to catch this evolving reprise.  Repeat audience members are now bringing friends—quite the testimonial to a “superlative entertainment product.”