CABARET REVIEW : Classy Combo Inaugurates Improv Room

The Improv has come up with another winner. The Santa Monica Room’s new venue, Upstairs at the Improv, opened Wednesday night with a show that hit the ground running.

There could not have been a better choice to helm the club’s maiden voyage than the off-beat, quirky, but perfectly matched partnership of singer Jaye P. Morgan and comedienne Pudgy. Morgan, perhaps best-known for her sometimes-bizarre appearances on television’s “Gong Show,” is a first-rate, jazz-based singer with a zany sense of humor. Pudgy, whose lightning-quick, electrically-spontaneous comedy is softened by a generous sensitivity to her audiences, can sing with style and rhythm. Together, they make a superb team--one which should consider having a more extended professional relationship.

Morgan launched the evening with an updated reading of one of her early pop hits, “Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries.” But she was at her best on standards like “Cheek to Cheek,” which revealed a rich, musical expressiveness not always apparent in her more comedic persona. Singing with crisply pointed rhythmic accents, her voice becoming almost horn-like as it moved into its upper range, Morgan was as musically fascinating as she was lyrically expressive.

With a crowd that included Milton Berle, Roseanne Barr, Lainie Kazan, Kathryn Grayson, Kaye Ballard and Michael Feinstein, Pudgy had plenty of opportunities to focus her uniquely interactive performance. Working entirely away from the stage, she moved through the room, interviewing her listeners, building extended gags along the way to connect such seemingly unrelated items as Grayson’s appetite, Kazan’s deep voice and Berle’s virility.

Pudgy’s inherent gentleness made it all work. Even when she was constructing a series of running jokes about the intelligence of blondes, she managed to do so without malice or nastiness. It was a remarkable balancing act, and one which could only have been done by a gifted performer with a loving heart.

Jaye P. Morgan and Pudgy continue their inauguration of Cabaret at the Improv through Sunday and return Wednesday through Sunday, Sept. 2. But owners Budd Friedman and Mark Lonow would be wise to consider an extended run for this classy combination.