McNight Brings ‘Sophie Tucker’ to Life

Sharon McNight is a force of nature, a performing presence with the imperturbable reliability of a powerful river and the irresistible energy of a smoldering volcano.

It’s a good thing she is. Because her one-woman show, “The Sophie Tucker Songbook,” which opened Tuesday night at the Hollywood Roosevelt Cinegrill, demands those qualities, and more. And it’s almost impossible to imagine any performer better qualified than McNight to revive the life, the songs and times of the woman who was best known as the “Last of the Red Hot Mamas.”

McNight, who received a Tony nomination for her 1989 Broadway debut in “Starmites,” fits the part perfectly. Adopting Tucker’s sardonic, slang-styled vocal delivery, her innuendo-filled physical gestures and her commanding control of the stage, she plays the role of “Red Hot Mama” to the hilt, tossing in bawdy, Tuckeresque comments at every opportunity. (Removing a mink fur from around her neck, she notes, “Don’t worry, it’s fake. I had to fake it a lot to get it.”)

But McNight is never less than respectful toward a performer whom she clearly admires, taking the audience on a colorful tour--not just through Tucker’s sexual allusions and sly advice songs--but through the remarkable life of one of the entertainment world’s most remarkable characters.

In a career that spanned some 60 years, Tucker’s singing has been preserved in every recording media known. (Her first outing, a 1911 wax-cylinder recording engineered by Thomas Edison, was recently ensconced in the Grammy Hall of Fame.)

She appeared in vaudeville, nightclubs, burlesque, films and television, in a career that ranged from the Ziegfield Follies in 1909 to “The Ed Sullivan Show” in the ‘50s. And she was responsible for a surprising number of hit songs. Her first big hit, remarkably, was “Darktown Strutters Ball,” written by African American composer Shelton Brooks, who also wrote another Tucker signature number, “Some of These Days.” She also had hits with “Moanin’ Low,” “After You’ve Gone” and the frequently revived “You’ve Gotta See Your Mama.”

McNight sings them all with a panache and an authority so self-assured that it is easy to overlook the superb musical ability that generates her interpretations. Capable of belting with crystal-breaking authority, she can also pull her readings down to an intimate, hypnotically compelling whisper. And, wise artist that she is, she presents Tucker both as the “battleship with a voice like 70 trombones” (as she was once described) and as the sometimes vulnerable, always intelligent, woman behind the legendary exterior.

McNight’s integration into the Tucker persona was so complete, so effective, that it was a sudden shock when, as she came out for her third encore, she slipped into her own, much gentler voice and quieter personality. In character, however, she is giving the performance of a lifetime. McNight as Sophie Tucker is 1997’s first must-see, small-stage performance.

* Sharon McNight in “The Sophie Tucker Songbook” at the Radisson Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel Cinegrill, 7000 Hollywood Blvd., Tonight, Friday and Saturday; Jan. 14-17; Jan. 21-25, 8 p.m.; Jan. 26, 3 p.m. $15 cover charge with $10 minimum purchase. (213) 466-7000.