Sun Pokes Through the Rage
Justin Vivian Bond Sings Melanie at 54 Below
By STEPHEN HOLDEN
Published: December 24, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/25/arts/music/justin-vivian-bond-sings-melanie-at-54-below.html?_r=0Justin Vivian Bond has a visceral imagination. During a recent performance of the Yuletide show "Snow Angel," at 54 Below, Mx. Bond imagined that his/her self-described freakishness was caused by a traumatized mother's suddenly curdled breast milk when her favorite soap opera was interrupted by Walter Cronkite's announcing President John F. Kennedy's assassination.
The Mx. is a gender-neutral honorific invented by this proudly abrasive stage personality, who used to be Kiki DuRane, the alcoholic female half of the fictional lounge duo Kiki and Herb. There were many moments when the singer, in a blond chignon hairpiece and black dress, suggested Kim Novak on a rampage.
The show is a caustically sarcastic holiday celebration in which this eager-to-offend transgender diva sings aggressively and mouths off about everything. Sample: "The Tea Party is the Klan without sheets."
The show's unlikely musical center consists of several songs by Melanie, the happiest hippie singer-songwriter of the late 1960s and '70s and, along with Donovan, a quintessential flower child.
