DIVAS DIVINE

Fabulous singers take it to the top in musical revue

By RICHARD HUNTINGTON
9/8/2006

Marion J. Caffey's rousing musical revue "3 Mo' Divas" may be the best pitch ever for the proposition that music lives in some big, free-swinging universe where it doesn't much matter whether you're singing "Quando m'en vo" from "La Boheme" or the bubble-gum classic, "My Boyfriend's Back." It's how you do it that counts."

And the three fabulous divas of Thursday night's opening of the show at Studio Arena Theatre did it just fine. Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer, Andrea Jones-Sojola and Laurice Lanier moved effortlessly from opera to Broadway to jazz and on to blues and soul. Add a little R&B, some old-time, drum-banging rock 'n' roll and a glorious topper of spirituals and gospels and you've got a great night of entertainment.

"3 Mo' Divas" puts such demands on the vocalists that it must be mounted with two successive openings with three fresh divas taking the stage. The second opening will happen tonight at 8 with divas Gretha Boston, Jamet Pittman and DeVonna Lawrence.

The singing, backed by an amazing six-piece band led by Victor Simonson, bounded from "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy from Company B" to "Let the Sun Shine In" from "Hair," with a stop-off at "Big Spender" from "Sweet Charity." The Soul/R&B medley ran the gamut from songs by Tina Turner, Aretha Franklin and the Weather Girls (if you remember "It's Raining Men"). Somewhere in the jazz/blues mix was, of all songs, "The Way We Were," which in Lanier's powerful, emotionally focused treatment seemed to deserve the categorization.

Lanier also had the one dark moment of the night with her achingly moving rendition of "Strange Fruit," with gorgeously mournful wordless accompaniment by Jones-Sojola. Gonzalez-Nacer dressed in a zoot suit for a rollicking version of "Minnie the Mooch," the song made famous by Cab Calloway. It was a showstopper, and more than made up for her spotty aria from Bizet's "Carmen."

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