Julie Wilson’s Cinegrill Show Is Another Feather in Her Cap

It was a five-boa performance for Julie Wilson on Wednesday night at the Cinegrill in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Famous for her array of colorful feathered adornments, the veteran singer was greeted--when she arrived on stage--by a piano covered with a pile of boas. And she used them all, stylishly, coquettishly, dramatically, clearly establishing her identity as one of the principal divas of the cabaret art.

Wilson’s jazz cabaret show--titled “Julie Wilson in Dixieland”--puts her in the seemingly unlikely position of a kind of New Orleans red-hot mama. But what may have seemed to be a surprising shift of emphasis from the more sophisticated ambience usually associated with her provided a marvelous opportunity to create an evening of music ranging from tender ballads to raunchy, blues-style anthems.

More than many performers, Wilson has always been comfortable in the transition between the large gestures of the Broadway musical stage and the smaller, more intimate interactions of the cabaret room. And with this program--in which she was accompanied by the spirited Dixieland sound of the Smith Street Society Jazz Band--she used both skills, belting some of the numbers, offering others with the feeling of a direct, one-on-one connection.

Her most touching number was a rendering of “Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans,” whose association with Billie Holiday was underscored by the gardenia that Wilson--like Lady Day--has always worn in her hair. But more than the visual connection, Wilson’s dark, sometimes grainy voice and her superb sense of phrasing created the sort of intensely personal storytelling qualities one associates with Holiday.

At the other end of the spectrum, Wilson was bawdy and boisterous with insinuating versions of “I Ain’t Gonna Give Nobody None of My Jelly Roll” and Fats Waller’s “Find Out What They Like” that had a full-house crowd shouting with enthusiasm.

Wilson is well into senior-citizen status, but there was no diminution in either her singing skills--which are still precisely musical and superbly expressive--or her ability to command a stage.

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“Julie Wilson in Dixieland” at the Cinegrill in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, 7000 Hollywood Blvd. Tonight and Saturday at 8 p.m. $20 cover with two-drink minimum. (323) 466-7000.