Tudury Fills Big Shoes at Cassis

It's not clear yet whether singer/ comedienne Teresa Tudury is another Tracey Ullman, a new Sophie Tucker or a revitalized Bea Lillie. Her utterly madcap performance at Cassis Cabaret in Hollywood Saturday night managed to include reference to all of the above-and then some.

But that's only part of the story. Tudury effectively revived Lillie's classic and still-hilarious "There Are Fairies at the Bottom of My Garden"; she shifted from character to character with the off-the-wall zaniness of Ullman; and she belted a song or two with the rich gusto of Tucker and Ethel Merman. Yet this remarkably entertaining tour de force represented only a few of the elements in her formidable arsenal of talents.

A young veteran of San Francisco's cabarets and little theater, Tudury is also a promising songwriter. Among the many highlights in her original numbers were "Eagle," a determinedly unsentimental reminiscence of her father, "Terry Wrote This One," a song composed (as Tudury explained) by her "inner child," and the whimsical "The Very Last Heterosexual Alive."

At this stage of her career, Tudury is taking risks all over the place. with none of the stiff and predictable inhibitions of a too-established performer. Her Saturday night set was a breath-taking tightrope walk that surged from jokes, mimicry and impressions to love songs, satire and whimsy. Somewhere along the way, she even managed to make the most of having to deal with a recalcitrant microphone and an unsteady chair.

What we're talking about here, folks, is a star in the making. It's not often that one gets to hear and see this kind of quirky performer when the bloom is still on the rose, and the agents haven't shown up to begin "defining" her act. Don't miss the opportunity. Tudury returns to Cassis Cabaret, with John Henry's piano accompaniment, every Friday and Saturday night for the rest of June.

-DON HECKMAN

Teresa Tudury at Genghis Cohen Cantina.

Wanna talk undiscovered greatness? Let's discuss Teresa Tudury, whose Sunday-night residency at Genghis Cohen has been one of the best kept secrets in LA. Picture a cross between Bette Midler and Bonnie Raitt musically, and toss in the most side-splitting stage patter imaginable, and you have Ms. Tudury. Why she's still pluggin' away as an unknown in the -- entertainment capital of the world is a total mystery -- this musical comedian is totally engrossing. Yes. it's cabaret, and that in and of itself may be the big off-puller, but Tudury is so damn good at this schtick, the jaw drops at each nutball turn of phrase or during any one of the fine torchers she's written. Make a star outta this woman, will ya? There's so much crap on the tube, screen and radio these days, here's a chance to rectify a major wrong. Talent does count for something.

(Johnny Angel)

TUDURY TODAY:

Undiscovered gems are a rarity in a city where folks are always on the lookout for the next big thing, but at the Genghis Cohen Cantina on Fairfax every Sunday night, there's a performer who is perched on the cusp of better things. Her name's Teresa Tudury, and she, like Smith-Barney, is making her reputation the old-fashioned way: She's earning it.

Performing in nightclubs since she was 15, Tudury's act is a nutty blend of torch ballads and novelty songs (including the classic "Last Heterosexual on Earth"), and between- song stage patter that goes from straight stand-up comedy into the ozone from time to time. Tudury is promoting her debut album "Teresa Tudury" at these gigs, as well as selling the record through the mail.

"Right now, I like being the captain of my own ship, so I haven't really talked to too many labels," the singer said. Tudury has been involved in a few TV pilots, and has done so many public- access shows that she now feels she is the queen of cable. "I want an award for 'most appearances on public TV' - they ought to call it a 'Pubie,' " Tudury joked. She says she would like to do more television, but for now, is happy with her residency.

"It's weird how people tell you, 'Wow, you're so funny, how come you're not famous yet,' " said Tudury, who still has crushing day-jobs. "The high point of my work career was when I was waitressing at Bob Hope's 90th birthday party. I was his waitress and Gerald Ford's and Pete Wilson's, and I couldn't help thinking, 'This can't be real, I gotta get outta here!' "

-John Carmen

The trail leads to Teresa Tudury.

At Alan Rlnde's Genghis Cohen Cantina there is a new generation of "folksingers" actively plying their wares. Were you to survey the scene to find a singer who perfectly defines the trend, the trail might lead to Teresa Tudury (prolnced Tear-ACE-a Two-DOUR-y), an gether exceptional singer/artist/songwriter. Eclectic, off-the-cuff, funny as hell and very much a spirited pilgrim, she's clearly a child of what may be the new '60s.

She was a well-bred San Francisco gal who was sent to a Swiss boarding school. but did her real post-graduate work In Tenderloin dives where she sang her own blues songs and figured the best way to hold an audience of the semi-sloshed was through her considerable sense of humor. The lesson served her well.

"For me it was music. I knew I'd grow up to be a blues mama -- either that or a pitcher for the Cleveland Indians -- and started writing songs when I was 12. In fact, in kindergarten, when the other klds were playing with blocks. I was singing 'Autumn Leaves.' Dylan, John Lee Hooker, Howlin' Wolf, Sarah Vaughan and Dinah Washington were her touchstones.

Marianne Williamson's Course in Miracles drew her to LA. "People thought I was odd, coming to LA for spiritual enlightenment. It was real culture shock. I dldn't know a soul in town." Before long she was performing and enjoyed long nm at the Rose Tattoo, Cassis, Vine Street, and more recently at the Cafe Largo. Now she's a regular at Ghengis.

The music itself. apart from her spontaneous. relentlessly funny patter, runs several gamuts. "If You Really Knew Who I Am" is an out-and-out spiritual. "This Is a song about God: what the hell," was Teresa's intro. Her voice frequently delves into deep, dark registers and were you to look away for an instant, you'd swear the song was being delivered by a powerful black woman. Maybe a Joan Armatrading or Tracy Chapman.

"I'm one-quarter Jewish and there's a whole line of female Jewish performer/singers-from Sophie Tucker and Fanny Brlce. to Bette Midler and Barbra Streisand - I strongly relate to. They're extremely witty and fun, and they're rather rare. There aren't many of them." Her song "The Very Last One," which Is usually referred to by its tag Iine, "I'm the lest heterosexual allve," is one such, worthy of a Beatrice Lilly. "I wrote that song In San Francisco in the late '80s when the thing to do was come out, and everyone was gay. People were coming out of the closet in droves. It was Ilke, 'Mom, Dad. I have to tell you something. I'm gay.' And they'd say, 'That's all right, dear, so are we.''

Other tunes veer toward hilarity. "Boys Will Be Boys," in which she urges a sister to stay on her feet at least through the first date: and "Rifle Range Love," which speaks for Itself. Then she reverts to a song she Insists virtually wrote itself after intensive therapy in which she was urged to get in touch with her inner child. It worked. "Terry Wrote This" is haunting and could only emanate from the vulnerable, troubled but brave heart of an eight-year-old.

If there's a spiritual underlay to Teresa's art, it's never hammered home.

"The problem is that nothing's making anybody happy anymore. We've been through all that '80s stuff and it left everybody feeling empty and desperate. There's a kind of grief that comes with that - the moment of despair - but once you've touched bottom and acknowledged it, that's when joy can come back in. I don't know where I fit in historically, but I believe the pendulum is swinging back. People, including musicians, fell in love with technology, but now there's this apparent longing to hear the voice, and the voice comes straight from the soul. There's a lot of terror and fear out there: it's time to gather around the campfire.'"

The Great Life

K im Basinger's come by, as have Shelley Winters, singer Monica Lewis with husband Jennings Lang, John Bowab, Ed Scherick, Johnnie Ray, Edie Adams, to hear Teresa Tudury perform at Cassis, the restaurant-cum-cabaret at 8450 West 3rd St., in West Hollywood, where Teresa sings Fridays and Saturdays, often accompanying heself on the guitar, with "'spiritual advisor" John Henry on the piano. Teresa's is a presence worth discovering, a simmering Mother Lode of singing. songwriting. acting and madcap comedy talent that needs a bit of focusing - she can sing down-and-dirty or with a sardonic twist and deliver hysterically funny patter. Songs that she's written and performs include, "I Practice In My Dreams ("the only place a single heterosexual woman gets it anymore in West Hollywood")", "Eagle" (she laughs about having an eagle-egg omelet for breakfast, muses how when she told her Dad she was writing this song and wanted to go into show business, he boomed, "Be done with it. Show business! Why not just put a red light over your door?"). She revives Bea Lillie's cheeky "There AreFairies at the Bottom of My Garden," follows it with "Inner Child" ("my therapist got me in touch with the child inside me"), recalls being in "a very, very long; very, very bad musical. "Srike," in San Francisco . . . I moonlighted, working mornings at Lefty O'Doul's, where "the bag people come in with their used tea bags and ask for hot water," and where the longtime veteran waitress Marcy, a Catholic alcoholic, broke Teresa in. "Do you know the most important thing in a restaurant? Safety! And the most dangerous thing? Butter!!" - Marcy then related how the 6-footer waitress Irma slipped on a dropped pat of butter in the kitchen, where all hell broke loose. She then croons a song about Marcy, and another of her own, inspired by San Francisco. "The Last Heterosexual Alive." finds Los Angeles, where she now lives. a city of "cappuccino machines and cars," asks everyone to sing along during a chorus of a folk song ("Do the Watusi/Ball Your Friend Lucy/AII Night"), finishes with "Love and Kindness," and somewhere in-between delivers a fine new rendition of '"Melancholy Baby." Later, she informs she's a two-year veteran of Steve Silver's "Beach Blanket Babylon" in San Francisco, finds she's bananas about Los Angeles -- "all this energy.'' What made her decide to relocate from San Francisco were Marianne Williamson's "The Course in Miracles'' meetings at the Preview House - "on Tuesday nights and Saturday mornings. Kim Basinger goes. Tony Perkins too -- it's about healing, and convinces one that whatever you conceive of can be done." Musicologist Alan Eichler is managing Teresa - Alan has brought back to the cabaret sene such talents as 70- year-old Anita O'Day (currently the toast of New York at Michael's Pub - "she lives in a trailer in Hemet." informs Alan). Nellie Lutcher, Dorothy Donegan. Yma Sumac. Ruth Brown, who, he adds, was driving a school bus and doing maid's work before she went on to win a Tony this year in the hit musical "Black and Blue."

--George Christy