Dallas Children's Theater Gives the Big Bad Wolf his Day in Court in the musical 3 Little Pigs; hear Etta sing in Deep Ellum production.

Comments (0) By Elaine Liner Thursday, Feb 3 2011

Wearing a blond wig (Etta was inspired to go platinum by the great actress Dorothy Dandridge) and working a flow-y blue velvet gown and sparkly rhinestone jewels, Keyton's Etta tells of a tough childhood in Los Angeles with an often-absent unwed teenage mother. Etta's father, it was later revealed, was white pool hustler "Minnesota Fats." One of the nicest moments in the narrative of this performance tells of Etta's first meeting with him when she was a young singing star.

Belting great tunes that include "W-O-M-A-N," "Downhome Blues," "Roll with Me, Henry" (later retitled "The Wallflower") and "A Sunday Kind of Love," Keyton is a marvelous facsimile of Etta James, echoing her phrasing, deep-throated soul and bone-rattling power. She can be riveting at the storytelling, too, getting into some of the dirt about Etta's days on the road with the Rolling Stones and her on-and-off affair with drugs and alcohol. Keyton isn't afraid to show off Etta's sexy siren side either, grinding her hips to a get-down B.B. King number with the lyrics "Rock me, baby/ Rock me like my back ain't got no bone."

Mark Oristano

Big Bad Wolf (Bob Hess, center) gets his day in court against porkers (from left) B.J. Cleveland, Lee Jamison, Catherine Carpenter Cox and Deborah Brown in The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs.

Details

The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs! continues through February 27 at Dallas Children�s Theater. Call 214-740-0051. Simply Etta continues through February 14 at Tucker�s Blues. Call 214-744-2583.

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At last, she gets to "At Last," Etta James' signature tune. The lead-in story takes aim at "that little heifer Beyonce" for singing it, in James' presence, at the Obama inaugural. In the diva rule book, you just don't sing another diva's song when she's in the room.

Backing up Keyton on keyboard is University of North Texas grad student Alejandro Serrano Ayuso. He's great. Keyton's great. The music's great. A bare stage, good tunes and a lady who can sing the blues. Simply Etta is simply terrific.