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| SWISS
MISS |
| Boerum Hill singer-songwriter
Jackie Gordon celebrates cheese in concert |
 Lady
sings the bleus: Jackie Gordon, a.k.a. Divalicious, regales
audiences with her show, a concert and tasting combo,
at the Laurie Beechman Theatre in Manhattan. |
| The Brooklyn Papers
/ Greg Mango |
By
Tina Barry
for
The Brooklyn Papers |
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| Brooklynite Jackie "Divalicious"
Gordon strides up to the microphone on the small stage
of the Laurie Beechman Theatre in Manhattan. After a rousing
rendition of Tommy Wolf's "Say Cheese," Gordon rips off
her white lab coat. Under the wrap is a Billy Holiday-style
brown satin gown - adorned with yellow satin wedges of
cheese. |
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| It's safe to say, no one wears
a fake cheese-covered gown like Gordon. |
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| The tall, striking, singing
chef from Boerum Hill stars in "Say CHEESE!: A tongue-titillating
tasting of artisanal cheeses, wines and the songs they
inspire." Think of it as the most amusing wine and cheese
party you'll encounter in a lifetime. |
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| In her first one-woman show
in the United States, Gordon performs 90-minutes of song
and conversation. While she sings, photos of her charming
the rind off a fantasy man made from huge wheels of cheese
flash upon a screen. |
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| During the performance, audience
members sample eight international cheeses from the Artisanal
Cheese Center on 37th Street in Manhattan. The cheese
is paired with two red and two white wines from the Diageo
Chateau & Estate Wines Company. |
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| Each of the eight cheeses is
presented with a song that illustrates its history. For
example, the Bayley Hazen Bleu Cheese from Jasper Hill
Farms is introduced with "Milk Cow Blues." |
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| "If I Could Date Cheese," "All
We Are Saying is Give Cheese a Chance," and "Don't You
Make my Bleu Cheese Blue" are sung in Gordon's smoky,
smooth voice. |
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| Audience members are asked
to rate each of the cheese-and-wine pairings, which leads
to good-humored banter among those seated and between
the audience and the performer. |
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| Gordon, who has lived in Boerum
Hill "foreva," said she conceived of the show after an
epiphany in the cheese department of Zabar's, the famous,
Upper West Side food emporium. Rows of creamy goat cheese,
called chevre; smelly, succulent bleus with their blue-veined
centers; and sharp, nutty sheep cheeses seemed to call
to her. But which of the hundreds of offerings should
she select? |
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| If someone like Gordon, who
says she "majored in restaurants" after graduating from
Brooklyn Technical High School, in Fort Greene, was bamboozled
by the choices, wouldn't a food novice in the same situation
run screaming back to their Velveeta?, she wondered. Gordon
then conceived of the learn-while-you-eat performance
that would educate the cheese-loving public. |
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| In 2003, she approached Terrance
Brennan, founder of the Artisanal Cheese Center (ACC)
in Chelsea with the concept for her song-and-sample musical.
Brennan, who had just opened the doors to the center,
loved the idea and became Gordon's sponsor for the project,
supplying the cheese for all of Gordon's performances.
(In addition to his work at ACC, Brennan is the chef and
proprietor of two Manhattan restaurants, Artisanal and
Picholine.) |
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| If it seems like a stretch
to walk through a food aisle and then think of turning
the experience into a multimedia, song-and-tasting experience,
it isn't for Gordon. She is an "eatertainer," a skilled
singer and chef with two successful "eatertaining" shows
to her credit. During a recent phone conversation, Gordon
told GO Brooklyn how her unique style of entertainment
evolved. |
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| In 1991, she left Boerum Hill
and moved to Melbourne, Australia, with a friend. Gordon's
first one-woman performance, "Black Pearls and Strange
Fruit," was a huge hit, she said, in the 1998 Fringe Festival
of the Arts in Australia, a performance venue featuring
avant-garde acts. "Black Pearls" told the history of black
women singers and their struggle for racial equality. |
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| Of that performance Gordon
said, "Black American food came through in every story." |
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| Her second production, which
debuted in 1999, "The Fried Chicken Theory According to
Jackie Gordon," was a four-hour extravaganza that she
performed at the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival. Gordon
sang her "History of Soul" music accompanied by an eight-piece
band and 22-member gospel choir. Two kitchens were erected
to produce a 10-course buffet using Gordon's recipes.
Diners feasted on gumbos, fried chicken, ribs, turnip
greens and macaroni and cheese, followed by six down-home
pies including Gordon's black bottom banana cream. |
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| Just five days before Sept.
11, 2001, Gordon resettled in Boerum Hill. |
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| "I was rushing to get home.
I just sensed something was happening and I needed to
be in Brooklyn," she says. Since her return, Gordon has
started a quarterly newsletter (information at www.Divalicious.biz),
that offers tips on improving life in New York. |
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| Looking ahead, Gordon has "something
sweet in mind" after "Say CHEESE!," but wouldn't elaborate
further. "Say CHEESE!" is an eatertaining opportunity
to see her in action. She is a versatile singer with a
rich, velvety voice, and an appealing stage personality. |
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| The moniker "Divalicious" suits
her. |
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| Jackie Gordon's "Say CHEESE!"
is performed in the Laurie Beechman Theater, 407 West
42nd St., Manhattan Plaza, in the downstairs performance
area of The West Bank Cafe, June 9 and 11. Shows start
at 7:30 pm; doors open at 7 pm. The theater is wheelchair
accessible with prior notice by calling The West Bank
Cafe management (212) 695-6909. Tickets are $60 (includes
cheese and wine samples) and can be purchased through
www.ticketcentral.com. |
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