WIT AND HUMOR – A FUNNY SITE BY BOB WAYNE

The Diva Drew and I went to The Dakota Jazz Club last night and saw Manhattan Transfer perform for two hours from a vantage point about 30 feet from the stage. Not only was seeing these legends of Jazz up close and personal performaing a wide selection of favorites amazing, but seeing Cheryl Bentene perform was extraordinary.

Did you ever see the movie Real Genius? You know the scene at the end where they blow up a house with exploding popcorn? That’s Cheryl Bentene on stage!

I couldn’t take my eyes off of her the entire night. It’s like she has her own personal party going on inside her head. And for the price of two tickets, we got to watch this woman expend energy levels I didn’t think anyone not on massive doses of drugs or having an apopleptic fit could produce!

The other magic of the evening was watching the Diva Drew. I’ve sat in the audience at Orchestra Hall and watched her command a stage with 400 singers and a huge orchestra behind her. And of course, I had to nudge everyone around me and tell them, “that’s my wife!”

But here she was at The Dakota, giddy as a schoolgirl, eyes shining, watching her heroes perform thirty feet from her. And mouthing the lyrics of every song. In her youth, she was in a Manhattan Transfer cover band, a vocal jazz quartet called Fourtune. Ever since, she’s followed the group and bought every album.

After the third encore, the group went back to the Green Room and changed. And then Cheryl came back out and sat at a table with friends. Lisa just sat and stared. I nudged her and told her to go talk to the woman. When would she ever get another chance to actually meet the contralto of Manhattan Transfer?

So she did. When she got back, I told her, “you should have gotten her autograph.”

She looked around but didn’t have anything to write on. So I pulled out the Dakota bar menu and handed it to her. “What could be better?” I told her.

She grinned, borrowed a pen from me and walked back to Cheryl. The other three members, Alan Paul, Tim Hauser and Janis Siegel were hanging out by the stage door. She managed to chat with all three of them and get their autographs.

Last I saw of her this morning, she was running out the door to a reheasal with The Rose Ensemble and Voces8 for their upcoming Candlelight Concerts. She’d left the autographed menu in the car so she could show it to all the other singers. They will be jealous, of course. Especially the English kids from Voces8.