Review: ME AND BOBBY PEACO at Don't Tell Mama Shines A Light On Friendship And Storytelling

Ok, gay boys, who's your best girlfriend? Or, girls, who's your closest gay boyfriend? Every gay boy has a galpal BFF, and every girl has her best gay; it's a time-honored relationship that everybody knows, loves, and respects - especially the spouses of the girl and the gay, who support the friendship, and maybe giggle about it to themselves now and then. But most girlfriends and their best gay boyfriends just hang out, get on the phone for long talks, or take fun trips together. Not Helane Blumfield and Bobby Peaco. No, they got together and put on a show.

ME AND Bobby Peaco is the new duo show that Blumfield and Peaco presented for two nights at Don't Tell Mama last week, and (as the title and much of their onstage conversation would confirm) it is all about their devoted friendship to one another. That's it. There's nothing more. These two musical artists met a few years ago, did some work together as singer and Musical Director, and formed a bond so close that when Peaco and his husband moved to Florida to buy a house and settle down in an environment with a less harsh economic climate than New York City, Helane FOLLOWED HIM. The twosome jokes about Helane's trips to Florida to hang out (and rehearse - it isn't all hijinks) and they spend much of their show demonstrating for the audience just what it looks like: the friendship AND the rehearsal.

Well, the friendship is beautiful - heartwarming and humorous - and the rehearsals paid off, big time, because Me And Bobby Peaco is a delightful and charming tribute to the power of friendship, and the reward of hard work and practice, to say nothing of the strength of connection that occurs when two musicians understand each other and speak the same language. It is a good thing that Blumfield and Peaco found each other, because each of them feeds off of, and nourishes, the other's musical talent. This is, indeed, a duo that works, and although the advertising for Me and Bobby Peaco declares it to be "a different kind of duo show," it won't look very different to anybody who has simliar friendship. The lucky ones who know, will know, and they will see themselves and their bestie in Peaco and Blumfield.

Structurally speaking, Me And Bobby Peaco is a confection, a bit of fun, a musical party. This show with no story arc or theme (other than friendship) should not work. A club act without an arc is a play without purpose. But Me And Bobby Peaco has plenty of play and plenty of purpose. As the duo discusses their friendship, banter playfully back and forth, and (generally) giggle up a storm, the story is THEIR story, and all the little anecdotes they have shared with each other, and then orchestrated to share with their audience. Sometimes singing together and, others, taking out moments for solo spots, Bobby and Helane discuss everything from Bobby's Floridian housing market to Helane's fascinating youthful obsession with all things Italian, applying to their tales a wide-range of musical offerings that doesn't just entertain their audience - it illustrates the quirkiness of the friendship. Teasing each other with banter that is equal parts scripted and in the moment, Helane and Bobby are like an old vaudeville team. They are delightfully funny, chatting each other and the crowd up, and yet professionally adept at dropping into the storytelling pocket, mere moments after acting like a couple of pals gossiping over the back fence. His humor and delivery are tenaciously right up front, while hers is laid-back and wry, and the chemistry is unchartable, from start to finish.

Musically, Blumfield and Peaco have put together a really fun program, and an interesting one, too. Both singers possessing of lovely voices, his bright and pretty and hers lush and husky, Bobby and Helane blend well on their duets and harmonies, complementing and supporting each other, and they have curated a setlist that leans, mostly, on radio tunes by artists like The Rolling Stones (an impressive evening highlight "Wild Horses"), Carrie Underwood (A fun "Before He Cheats"), and Tom Jones (a welcome "Sex Bomb" from Helane's Tribute Show to Jones), which is always a pleasure because the art form of cabaret can tend to lean into musical theater and standards - getting a show full of radio hits is a warm respite. Bobby and Helane did not, though, steer completely away from the more traditional fare because Bobby created a wonderful mash-up of "Too Darn Hot" with "Black As Night" and the twosome used the seldom-sung "Cinema Italiano" from the film Nine to illustrate Helane's Italy thing, and to introduce her friend Gina to the audience in an appropriately fun and theatrical manner. It is interesting that the colleagues would choose this particular song (and Helane's costume pieces) for their Italian storytelling because the musical Nine is based on the 1963 black-and-white film 8 ½ by Federico Fellini, and Helane Blumfield is beautiful in the same vein as the actresses of that era - women like Anna Mangani, Irene Pappas, and Anouk Aimee. It was a very effective moment of storytelling, not to mention a treat, being in a room with cabaret artists who make interesting choices.

The storytelling in ME AND Bobby Peaco is all interesting, even when it's no more than two friends having a goss with a piano between them. Director Lennie Watts gave the duo permission to just be themselves, helping Helane map out the best ways for her to use the entire stage, to move around so that the piano in the room did, in fact, not part she and Bobby. With that permission to play in the room, that's just what Blumfield and Peaco did, and it showed in every moment of the program, both spoken and musical, with particular highlights rising out of a breathtakingly dramatic Pat Benatar cover performed by both artists, some wonderful Neil Diamond, and Peaco's paean to New Orleans, which he wrote in 1986 and which he should never stop singing.

And he should never stop singing with Helane Blumfield because this modern-day pop-singing Vaudeville team is enchanting, as performers and people. It's easy to see why Helane followed him down to Florida and insisted on putting together this act - they have something. And when two people have something that creates a spark of creation, a spark of life, it needs to be nurtured and it needs to be witnessed. Those of us in the seats out front (and the husbands) are just really lucky that we get to be there to witness Helane and Bobby P - on or off the stage.

ME AND Bobby Peaco will return to Don't Tell Mama for encore performances on August 2nd and August 3rd. The Don't Tell Mama website can be accessed HERE.

Visit the Helane Blumfield website HERE and the Bobby Peaco Facebook page HERE.

Photos by Stephen Mosher

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