CABARET REVIEW: Theresa Kloos at the BOP STOP by Laura Kennelly

TheresaKloos (1)

Thu 2/2

Cleveland native Theresa Kloos, like so many Clevelanders, is perfecting the art of humorous complaint. Would Clevelanders even know “happy” if we saw it? (Yeah, I think we would, but thought I’d ask anyway.) In “Reasons to Be Unsuccessful,” her recent show at the classy new Bop Stop on Detroit Avenue, she kept her audience laughing as she offered wry takes on the “downs” attached to making a living as an actress in New York City.

Clad in printed footie flannel pajamas, Kloos set a comic tone to open the show as she bounced through the audience and onto the stage singing “Don’t Stop Me Now.” As the show continued she peeled off and added layers (including a sweat suit improvised out of a garbage bag for a Rocky workout song) before ending up shod in killer red heels and wearing a smart red outfit. Like other smart women, she used clothes to make a point.

Kloos used funny anecdotes to detail the attendant perils of using OKCupid to find love. (Ah! Single life in the big city!) Her not-so-happy accounts of temp jobs were laced with appropriate songs. Despite her plaintive complaints, one has the sense that Kloos will turn out just fine in the Big City, though her father (in the audience) could be heard in fake phone messages asking her to come back home to Cleveland. Since it seemed to be his voice on the tape, one had the feeling he is a good sport and was really all right with his lovely daughter’s dreams.

In addition to a sense of humor about life and herself, Kloos also has an appealing voice, one that’s become even richer since her college days at Baldwin Wallace University (class of 2010), She showed it off with a variety of styles, especially during her articulate riff about being a nanny (with a very Julie Andrews accent straight out of The Sound of Music).

A lively band, made up of David Pepin, Brent Hamker, Alfredo Guerrieri and Scott Shaughnessy, accompanied Kloos (and provided a few comic interactions, especially Pepin whose deadpan “No” and refusal to banter every time she asked him a question added more humor to Kloos’s mock complaints).

Kloos’s first Cleveland cabaret show at Cain Park in 2014 was titled “Reasons to be Unpretty,” so calling this new show “Reasons to be Unsuccessful,” continues the tradition. But that title, as with the other, label, isn’t persuasive. Standup comedy isn’t easy, but in the pretty Kloos’s case she shows she’s got plenty of reasons to be successful.

[Written by Laura Kennelly]

Cleveland, OH 44113

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