POP MUSIC REVIEWS : ‘Divas’: Stirring Song and Comedy

“Divas: Simply Singing,” the benefit concert Saturday night at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre, was mostly entertaining and often quite moving. But things did drag at times. If trimmed from 3-hours-plus to around 2 1/2 hours, the whole affair would have moved up a notch--from very good to excellent.

For the fifth straight year, executive producer-creator Sheryl Lee Ralph assembled female performers--nearly all singers--for a show to help support two organizations that care for AIDS patients, Baby Buddies and Project Angel Food.

Most of the evening featured R&B; artists--from CeCe Peniston and Jody Watley to Chante Moore and Siedah Garrett--performing one song each with piano backing.

The highlights were Garrett, adding new twists to the Michael Jackson hit “The Man in the Mirror,” and Watley, turning her hit, “Lookin’ for a New Love,” into a joyous, audience-participation number.

For variety, opera singer Anita Johnson contributed a spine-tingling aria, Lisa Stewart did a stirring, country-inflected number and Linda Hopkins had the audience in stitches with a bawdy blues number.

The singers, though, were overshadowed by two comedians, Marsha Warfield and Liz Torres. Both Warfield’s topical, barb-filled routine and Torres’ song about the absence of Chicanos on TV were hilarious.