photo by Bruce-Michael Gelbert
Bianca Leigh
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On July 15, lovely chanteuse Bianca Leigh, assisted by DJ Stacy, returned to, as she put it, “proudly lesbian-owned” Cherry’s on the Bay to lavish her silvery voice on her selection of songs and plumb them for their fullest depths of emotion. Sharing the stage with a framed photo of a corgi with a crown, Bianca celebrated English Royalty and music of the British Invasion of the mid-1960s. Remembering Dusty Springfield, she sang “Son of a Preacher Man,” and commenting, “Do you think you’re the first drag queen to ever go down by the Christopher Street piers?” launched into a group of songs associated with Shirley Bassey, beginning with “History Repeating” and continuing with the “Love Story” theme, and from “Sweet Charity,” “Big Spender.”
Bianca remembered the psychedelic late ’60s with the Beatles’ trippy “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” She dedicated Lulu’s “To Sir with Love” to Paula Deen—think about it—and honored Julie Andrews with “Le Jazz Hot” from “Victor/Victoria.” She ended this group singing “I Know Him So Well,” from “Chess,” as a solo.
After an interlude with Sabel Scities, Bianca took the stage once more, and saying, “There’s a very fine line between wanting me and wanting to be me,” sang a swinging “I Need a Man.” Declaring “(There will be no) White Flag (on my door),” she refused to surrender!
Welcome back, Bianca Leigh!