Christina Bianco
Live at Birdland Jazz Club
It was a wonderful interactive night at Birdland this past Monday when the tiny Mega Diva Christina Bianco took the stage with her “Diva on Demand” premiere.
As we were seated at the table there was a sheet of paper where you had a choice of songs, or in some cases you could write in your own. These were collected, tallied and the most popular songs were chosen for the show. Many of the tables had cards with names of singers so it was clear that this show was going to be a lot of fun, and it was.
The 4’11” Bianco is one of those rare treasures that not only has a beautiful soprano voice in her own right, but can transform it into the likes of Celine Dion, as she did ‘on demand’ taking the stage with a version of “One Night Only”. I mean, this is close your eyes and you are listening to Celine for real, and it’s astonishing. While there’s lots of serious singing going on, Christina loves to ham it up, and her exaggerated impersonations are both dazzling and insanely comical.
The show was an eclectic mix of ‘theme’ songs that were mostly chosen by the audience in a format that was to emulate a properly constructed Cabaret. There was ‘Disney Song’ “Under the Sea” sung by a lost for words Patti LuPone, and an unlikely interpretation of “Material Girl” by Kristin Chenoweth and Shirley Bassey. The ‘60’s song’ was “River Deep” by Celine, then Barbra and Dolly took a stab at “Barbie Girl”. The talented Brian Nash, musical director, took the male role on ‘the duet’ of “Time of My Life”, but I wouldn’t have been surprised if she had done them both. Another unlikely interpretation was Judy Garland singing “No Scrubs”. She changed gears a bit reading from a favorite book, My Passion for Design, by Barbra Streisand where Barbra herself began the chapter, and the voices of Drew Barrymore, Penelope Cruz, Keira Knightley, Jennifer Anniston all take a turn at the verse. Even Kathy Griffin got a few words in, and I can only wonder if this will be her last public performance? She finished up reading the epilogue by Sophia Vergara, Elaine Paige and Barbara Walters. In this world of social media, texting, twitter and hashtags I want to LOL all over this blog, but I’m sure you get the picture. “Diva on demand” picked up again with the audience gleefully shouting out the Divas to sing the song. Next up was the ‘Story Song’, Vanilla Ice Cream (her Mom’s favorite), and ‘Gianni’s Pick’, “No One But Me” (Gianni Valenti is the club owner). The all-encompassing finale of “I am what I am” brought out the lollapalooza of Divas. Shall I name them all? Judy, Barbra, Kristin, Bernadette, Linda Eder (sorry, you still need your last name), Julie, Billie, Marilyn, Brittany, Celine, Liza and Shirley! It’s hard to imagine that she still had the breath left for the ‘short sweet encore’ of “Don’t Stop Believin’”sung by Julie Andrews. Other Diva’s making an appearance were Christina Aguilera, Nora Jones, Piaf, and Alanis Morissette. Her timing and delivery are spot on, and you know that there was just no way she could have rehearsed all of these songs. That’s Diva talent. Christina Bianco is the biggest littlest thing that ever happened.
Christina has gone International with her Cabaret impersonation shows, and has many other accomplishments to her credit including Off-Broadway shows like “The Marvelous Wondrettes”, “Forbidden Broadway” and Tony and Tina’s Wedding to name a few. She has also appeared on Television and performs with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Follow her YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/ and check her website https://www.christinabianco.com for upcoming shows near you. You won’t want to miss it.
–ThisbroadSway 5/29/17