Miss Manhattan Hangs Out with Lena Horné
And I am telllllllling youuuuuuu!
Summer is sizzling outside when I walk down West 36th Street to meet Lena Horné at The Tank theatre. Tonight, Lena, in all of her chanteuserie, is performing a new cabaret show, 3 Bucks! 2 Bags! 1 Drag Queen! Lena is named in honor of the great diva Lena Horne, but with a little twist courtesy of that accent mark at the end. She also cites Eartha Kitt, Bette Midler, Faith Evans, and Pearl Bailey as influences, and my goodness I do not get enough Pearl Bailey references these days. Nor, frankly, do I get enough cabaret shows. So I’m delighted to be here tonight for Lena’s fête, backstage and in the audience.
A set of stairs take me up to the theatre’s lobby, where a sign flashes the name of her show in multicolored lights. Lena arrives not too long after, in a slinky silver dress, braids swept up onto her head, totes in tow. We make our way to the dressing room, where she readies a longsleeved brown column gown, and collects her props for the stage. I won’t see them until later, but they’re meaningful–a copy of Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin; a biography of her namesake, Lena Horne; copies of Harper’s Bazaar with Tessa Thompson, Tracee Ellis Ross, and Venus & Serena Williams on the cover.
In the light of the dressing room, a flash of ink runs past my eyes when she moves her arm–it’s a line drawing of the great stage artist Josephine Baker. Lena shares Baker’s origins, how she stood out in the chorus by being ridiculous on purpose. She used what made her different to craft a magnificent life for herself that ultimately left the chorus behind.
Lena, a trained singer of both classical music and musical theatre, has been putting on these cabarets of her own volition for a few years. She’s driven partly by the lore of actress Jenifer Lewis, who famously created her own performances when she wanted to make sure people could see her.
The set for Lena’s show comes together quickly in The Tank’s black box theatre, a row of rainbow lights leading up to the entrance. It is still June, still Pride Month after all. A vanity table arrives, complete with wig and makeup. A couch, a coffee table, paintings. We are being invited to lounge at home with the diva herself. In song and banter, 3 Bucks! 2 Bags! 1 Drag Queen! will chronicle Lena’s time in New York.
Soon Lena is bathed in a kaleidoscope of lights. She sings a collection of Broadway and pop tunes, from Mary J. Blige’s “Family Affair” to “Somewhere That’s Green,” from Little Shop of Horrors. At one point she sings not just one but a medley of songs known to knock people out, among them “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” from Dreamgirls. She’s still standing at the end, in the same leopard print Sophia Webster heels she started in. I don’t know how she does it.
