CABARET REVIEW : 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.

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.

What we’re talking about here, folks, is a star in the making before the agents show up to begin “defining” her act. Tudury returns to Cassis Cabaret, with John Henry’s piano accompaniment, every Friday and Saturday night for the rest of June.