Sharon McNight is insanely talented and has so much LGBT cred, it’s daunting. After making her Broadway debut in 1989 in “Starmites” (as Diva, no less), the singer, actor, comedy writer and scholar (the latter skill set developed at City College of San Francisco and Yale University) performed leading roles in touring productions of “Nunsense” and “Hello, Dolly!” She has been caricatured by Al Hirschfeld, was written about in Randy Shilt’s book “And The Band Played On” and has been an honorary chair of the San Francisco AIDS Emergency Fund and as grand marshal of San Francisco’s Pride parade.
McNight has crafted wildly funny and sonically astute cabarets like “Ladies, Compose Yourselves!,” “Betty, Betty, Bette” (celebrating Grable, Hutton and Davis) and “Songs To Offend Almost Everyone,” which just ran in earnest at Dino’s Backstage in Glenside. This weekend, McNight brings her new musical revue, “Soup to Nuts,” to The Rrazz Room in New Hope, where she has played her hero Sophie Tucker in “Red Hot Mama” in the past.
PGN: I’m sorry I just missed “Songs to Offend Almost Everyone” at Dino’s. How is that different from what will happen within the framework of “Soup to Nuts” at The Rrazz?
SM: I have always had an eclectic repertory, hence the title “Soup to Nuts.” I can do Broadway, country … I have a country and western CD where I yodel the first country tune to be copyrighted by a woman. I do impressions of Mae West, Sophie Tucker, Bette Davis and all the Munchkins, Glinda and the Wicked Witch from “The Wizard of Oz.” You name it, I do it: entertainment, old-style; make you laugh; make you cry. All except grand opera, though I was in the San Francisco Opera’s production of “Show Boat,” which is close.
PGN: On the notion of that which will offend … What is “offensive”? What is the comic line? What can be crossed? Example, Kathy Griffin.
SM: The show you missed at Dino’s Backstage, I researched extensively. It’s what happens when you have a master’s degree and have a desire to learn things. It covers the repression learned in childhood, sexism, homosexuality stereotypes, the most offensive woman of the 20th century, religious hypocrisy, among other topics. I don’t think you need to say four-letter words to be offensive, though I said a few in the show. I am, however, doing a Trump parody in New Hope that was “deemed” offensive to three men in a Palm Springs audience, which only proves some people can’t take a joke about a joke.
PGN: Well, that’s the difference between Palm Springs and New Hope, with which you have a long history.
SM: I’ve played New Hope for years. I started at The Raven, then Odette’s and, when it flooded, the brewery for Pride Week, Nevermore, Bob Egan’s, and finally The Rrazz Room. And I heard the check don’t bounce in Pennsylvania.
PGN: I love the picture you create with your start: standing on a stage made from beer cases in San Francisco’s Castro District. Do you remember the beer? What club space? The audience reaction?
SM: The cases of beer were Budweiser. There was a gay-bar boycott of Coors because of their homophobic policies in the ’70s. The club was the Rainbow Cattle Company. The building is still there on the corner of Duboce and Guerrero but with a different name. I had a country/western band at the time. We also played the Reno Gay Rodeo for several years. What can I say? I’m a chameleon.
PGN: I know you write jokes for others, but whom?
SM: When people pay money, I keep my mouth shut. I have a master of arts degree in stage direction; I write shows for people and try to find humor in every situation for people who are not necessarily funny. I began by writing children’s plays, which finally morphed into the off-Broadway show “Red Hot Mama” about the legendary entertainer Sophie Tucker.
PGN: There’s a lot of Sophie in your show, but it also seems as if you are inspired by Rusty Warren, the woman famed for “Knockers Up.”
SM: I met Rusty when she was living in Phoenix — lovely lady and very courageous. I think Sophie Tucker and Mae West inspired me more because of the censorship they faced during the ’30s and subsequent years.
PGN: Do you have a motto that you try to live by?
SM: “If you can’t do your act in the headlights of a ‘56 Chevy, you don’t belong in show business” has always been my motto. I sing what I teach and I teach what I sing is what I told my students at Yale. My job is to entertain you. It’s not about me, it’s about them out there, the audience. Make ’em laugh, make ’em cry and I’ve done my job. n
Sharon McNight performs “Soup to Nuts” 7:30 p.m. June 24 at The Rrazz Room, 6426 Lower York Road in New Hope. For more information or tickets, visit www.therrazzroom.com