A STORM IS BREWING
Singer, songwriter, raconteur, author, actor, playwright, and powerhouse performer Storm Large is on tour with her band Le Bonheur and they’re coming to the L.A. area for two shows only. The only difference in venues here is that her appearance at the Broad in Santa Monica (February 26) is pricier than at Haugh Performing Arts Center in Glendora (February 27). Location, location, location. But fear not, both theaters will be filled with gay boys, preppies, hipsters, lesbians, students, democrats, republicans, retirees, rockers, and maybe some reptiles — she attracts ’em all. What I can say is this: Listen to me and listen well. You will never forget the time you spent with her. Storm is one of the greatest entertainers and 
song interpreters of our time.
How does one describe this uniquely original chanteuse? It’s as if there was some huge female orgy with the likes of Frances Faye, Rusty Warren, Peggy Lee, Janis Joplin, Bonnie Raitt, Joan Jett, Amy Winehouse, Bette Midler, a wisecracking film noir gun moll, and a Madam of the friendliest Chicken Ranch on the planet — and they had this love child.
She’s crass, crude, course, cosmopolitan, cunty, caring, vulnerable, nasty, statuesque, irreverent, furiously funny, and while the facts haven’t been confirmed, I’m rather certain she’s hung like a doughnut. And she’s hot. Super fox hot. But somehow modest. This is the Storm Large who said in an interview: “Who the fuck could look like Megan Fox? Jesus Christ. Fuck – I’d crawl across broken glass to stick a match in her poop. She’s beautiful.”
She is as comfortable at the Hollywood Bowl (I saw her sing with the band Pink Martini) as she is at the tiny Boston Court Performing Arts Center in Pasadena (just having her all up in my face there made me feel fourteen again — I stained the seat like someone carving initials in a tree). She has sung with the National Symphony Orchestra, k.d. lang, classical pianist Kirill Gerstein, punk rocker John Doe, singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright, and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer George Clinton. She is truly a Renaissance Woman. (And who remembers her from Harps and Angels, the 2010 Mark Taper Forum musical featuring the work of Randy Newman?)
And don’t worry if you think you’re too timid to watch her. Wrong. This amazing Amazonian will charm the pants off of you. And if she doesn’t, I’m sure she’d have no problem if you did it yourself.
In the fall of 2014, Storm and Le Bonheur released Le Bonheur (French for “The Happiness”), a record which captures their sublime and subversive interpretations of the American Songbook. The recording is a collection of tortured and titillating love songs; beautiful, familiar, yet twisted … much like the lady herself. She will offer you the American songbook, Broadway tear-jerkers, rock goddess anthems and some of her own gorgeous originals all delivered with a fierce personal commitment. Keep your fingers crossed (and legs open) that she does the one-of-a-kind cover of Cole Porter’s “I’ve Got You Under My Skin.” God knows she is certainly under mine.
photos by Laura Domela
Storm Large and Le Bonheur
Taken By Storm: Songs of Seduction and Obsession
Friday, February 26 at 7:30
The Eli & Edythe Broad Stage
1310 11th St. in Santa Monica (free parking)
for tickets ($55 to $85), call 310.434.3200 or visit The Broad
Saturday February 27 at 8
Haugh Performing Arts Center (at Citrus College)
1000 W. Foothill Blvd. in Glendora (free parking on weekends; lot S1)
for tickets ($30 to $34), call 626.963.9411 or visit Haugh
for more info, visit Storm’s site
