The Lives of our Day

Beverly Brennan

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Operating under the Mariposa Artists banner, local cabaret singer and actor Robert Breig has brought a number of top-flight acts to The Chapel Venue recently, including the lyrical and highly personal Ebb and Flow with St. Louis singer Dionna Raedeke and guitarist Mike Krysl and a visit from Palm Springs cabaret star Jerome Elliot. His latest project is Beverly Brennan's Doris Day tribute show A Night With Day, which plays The Chapel Venue Friday and Saturday, September 20 and 21 at 8 PM.

This is the second solo outing for Ms. Brennan, a St. Louis native (and daughter of sportscasting legend Jack Buck) who grew up on The Hill. Her first, St. Louie Woman, played to sold-out houses both here and in Chicago in 2010.  This time around she has teamed up with another legend: New York-based singer, songwriter, and music director Rick Jensen, recipient of six Manhattan Association of Cabaret and Clubs (MAC) Awards and frequent faculty member at the St. Louis Cabaret Conference.

I managed to get Ms. Brennan to take a few minutes from her final week of rehearsals to field a few questions about the show.

Q: What made you decide to do a Doris Day tribute show?  Were there things about her life, career, or some choices that really spoke to you?  If so, what were they?

A: Doris Day was always in the background when I was a little girl in the 1950s. I love that she is so multitalented and that she has always had the power to reinvent herself. She is a survivor.

Q: Most people probably remember Day's "squeaky clean" image from the romantic comedies she did with actors like Rock Hudson, Gig Young, and Jack Lemmon in the 1960s, but she had a somewhat rocky off-screen life.  Does the show reflect that?

A: I share the dark side and tell the truth with my tribute: four marriages, affairs and an unfulfilled personal life, including her only son's death from cancer.  She was in many ways, the opposite of what people think! Happy endings in movies, not life, a Midwestern gal in Hollywood, never did Broadway, wanted to be a dancer, not singer, great judge of leading men but not lovers or husbands.

Rick Jensen

Q: What would you like audiences to take away from "A Night With Day"?

A: I want my audience to take away more love for an American icon who is underrated and a complicated woman. Also that Rick Jensen is a frigging genius!

Performances of A Night With Day take place Friday and Saturday, September 20 and 21, at 8 PM at The Chapel Venue, 6238 Alexander Drive at Wydown and Skinker.  The Chapel is a not-for-profit music venue, performance space and art gallery.  Two complimentary drinks (beer, wine, soda) are included with the show. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at the door or on line at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/422428.