CLUB REVIEW : Singin’ the Blues for the Ladies at Cicada

Millie Kaiserman may sing the blues to a wide variety of enthusiastic listeners, but her strong, soulful voice and song selection are clearly aimed at the ladies.

Kaiserman--singing on Thursday nights in Cicada restaurant’s 100-capacity Backroom club with a smile on her face and pain in her heart--can make any woman’s heart skip a beat with her tales of cheating and defeating.

On a recent Thursday, while Dolly Parton, George Michael and Gore Vidal dined separately in Cicada’s adjacent restaurant, Kaiserman belted out the lyrics, “You can have my husband, but pleeeease don’t mess with my man,” and every well-heeled woman in the place howled with delight.

After anything-but-standard renditions of “Low Down Dirty Blues” and “I Can’t Stand the Rain,” she nearly brought down the house with a number that included the line, “You don’t know me, but I’m in love with your man / I don’t see him often, but I see him as often as I can.”

Reservations for her show are required, and unless you’re having dinner, they’re not easy to come by.

Reservations will be a little easier as the weather warms up.

Not only do the proprietors--songwriter Bernie Taupin and his wife, Stephanie Haymes--pop out the windows of the Backroom’s domed ceiling, but they also open a series of French doors, adding half-a-dozen tables outside.

* The Backroom at Cicada, 8478 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood . $5 cover . Reservations: (213) 655-5559.