Review: Leanne Borghesi Answers The Question, “Where The Hell Has She Been?” With BORGHESI'S BACK! At Don't Tell Mama

Heigh-Ho Friends & "Family"! Bobby Patrick your RAINBOW Reviewer here. Putting the silent T in CABARET to bring you all the T...

"Where The Hell Has She Been?" Is the question everyone is asking about Leanne Borghesi... right after asking, "Who the hell IS Leanne Borghesi?" Well, with her new show, BORGHESI'S BACK! Leanne (an out and proud L in the LGBTIA+ community) took no prisoners and left no question as to who she is and how she got to Don't Tell Mama's stage on Saturday night. Just in time for gay pride, Borghesi hit the stage and took her audience on a wild, cross country ride in her 2nd (or 3rd) hand Winnebago, where this big-voiced dynamo weaved the tale of how she spent her pandemic, desperately seeking an audience. That is basically the "plot" of the lady's super-energized cabaret "ACT"; A good old-fashioned nightclub act reminiscent of the great "Show Broads" of the past. With nothing but her tremendous voice and music director Brandon Adams' talented fingers on the keys, Borghesi's act comes on like busters gang starting with her surprise entrance on her opening number where she sets up her hilarious premise. She then proceeds to run the gamut of her many neuroses, and pandemic show cancelation woes singing her way through a song list that ran a gamut or two of its own. With a setlist of 14(ish) numbers, this energetic comedienne has definitely created an Act that is as much about her comedy as it is about her terrific singing, and less about any deeply personal stories told from her real life and more about... well, her Act. Leanne Borghesi is a Funny Lady and much like the legends of nightclubs past, her powerful singing matched by her boisterous antics reminds one of the old blowsy belters like Pat Carroll, Kaye Ballard, Imogene Coca, and Charlotte Rae. In fact, it would require talent of their magnitude to take our recent global PAINdemic and build a full comedy musical club act around it, and that kind of talent is the blessing Borghesi bestowed on her bursting at the seams house at DTM.

Now dear ones, yours truly has never caught the lady's act before, so Saturday was our maiden voyage with her work; though she has thrilled audiences the length and breadth of the US of A in cabarets, nightclubs, and many a regional stage as she is quite the lesbian... I mean THESPIAN of the theatre. Though her setlist consists of very familiar hit songs from Broadway and pop repertoires, the particular selections and where they intersect with her On The Road Again act brought surprise after surprise and laughs on top of laughs. Seriously, who puts Moonraker (a James Bond Theme) in their nightclub act if their name ain't Bassey? Who throws in Madonna's Hanky Panky and encores with I Will Survive - featuring a surprise guest (Bobby won't tell but it was another belting Show Broad )? Well, Leanne Borghesi has the big, sparkly mirror balls to do it and to pull it off with showstopping results. Clearly, this little rainbow boy enjoyed the hell out of Borghesi's romp across America, and to go on and on raving would just bore all of us... But truthfully, dearlings, this show is one not to be missed and since Gay Pride is extending into July owing to that wicked witch RONA, you should put her next show dates in your little rainbow book and call Don't Tell Mama's to reserve your tickets for her July, 23 (7 PM) and August 20th (930 PM) shows right away because Bobby was sitting in a packed house on Saturday. And, for all that and a whole lot more, we give BORGHESI'S BACK! A full

5 Out Of 5 Rainbows (Check it out!)

Leanna Borghesi is a dot com: HERE

Check Out her Insta-Pictograms: HERE

And Followe on Ye Olde FaceBooke: HERE

Make your Don't Tell Mama Reservations: HERE

(Don't Tell Mama's accepts CASH ONLY payments in their cabaret rooms)

All photos by my lovely boss, Stephen Mosher

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