It takes some time before Leah Yorkston settles her voice into a firm interpretation of Dusty Springfield’s unique contralto.
When it happens — about 30 minutes into “Forever Dusty,” during the 1968 pop hit “I Close My Eyes and Count to Ten” — Yorkston’s big, warm notes wrap around each audience member like a velvet Snuggie.
The biographical musical from Triangle Productions aims to shed light on the enigmatic British singer, who hid under sky-high wigs and eye makeup so thick it would make a raccoon blush. Though she was huge in her home country, and her style of crossover rhythm and blues would later influence Adele, Duffy and Amy Winehouse, Springfield notched just a handful of Top 10 hits stateside. (“Son of a Preacher Man” is probably her most-karaoke’d.)
Dusty Springfield – Son of a preacher man
Taking on Springfield’s distinctive voice and unwinding her zigzagging path through fame aren’t enviable jobs, even for Yorkston.
The operatically trained Portland performer solved the problem of playing Maria in “The Sound of Music” and conquered galaxies as an alien vixen in “Wild Space a Go Go.” Springfield jumped musical genres, from folk to doo-wop to soul and ’80s synth pop. During her time in the spotlight, she defied apartheid by singing for non-segregated audiences in Cape Town, South Africa, and took heat for it back home. She battled alcoholism, fought continual insecurity about her talent, and struggled with outing herself as gay.
Yorkston and her five co-stars have to wrestle with Kirsten Holly Smith and Jonathan Vankin’s choppy collage of Springfield’s life. The playwrights’ collection of all-too-brief scenes are more like “pins” on a Dusty Springfield Pinterest page than a cohesive story. Stuffing 20 songs from Springfield’s impressive repertoire creates even more breaks in the storytelling.
All the better that director Don Horn cast Yorkston, and, as Springfield’s longtime girlfriend Claire, Kayla Dixon. The two powerhouse vocalists spellbindingly execute that concert-length set-list, a smart mix of solos and duets. In doing so, the pair hammers out the true emotional journey in “Forever Dusty.”
Line of the night: “Do you realize that what I’ve just told you could put the final seal to my doom? I don’t know, though, I might attract a whole new audience,” Springfield says, after revealing her sexual orientation to a music journalist.
Strengths: Despite possessing an instrument that sounds more suited to a musical centered on Olivia Newton-John or another pop soprano, Yorkston really digs into Springfield’s deep notes and raw, flowing vibrato. “Forever Dusty” soars even higher when Dixon and Yorkston combine talents and energy. They’re absolutely electric together. And their sizzling duets, particularly “Just a Little Lovin’ ” and “Little by Little” say so much more about their relationship than the often awkward dialogue.
Weaknesses: All of the scenes are about of equal length — four to six minutes — and that’s a tough build for sturdy, meaningful story arcs. A touching reunion near the conclusion, for example, is over in a blink.
A biographical musical that doesn’t include the artist’s best-selling single? That’s what happens here. “What Have I Done to Deserve This?” — Springfield’s 1987 worldwide smash with the Pet Shop Boys — goes unsung, cited only in a snippet from the music video. That’s a bewildering bungle.
Pet Shop Boys – What Have I Done To Deserve This
Additional strengths: The set is a snooze — just a backdrop and a desk. But the detailed costume and wig ensembles communicate the changing decades, locations and moods spectacularly. Conceived by Horn, Yorkston’s duds include a dazzling Swinging London mod print skirt, a neon, flower power-era tunic and pant suit, and a silver-trimmed white jumpsuit that’s a ringer for the one Springfield wore for a performance at the Royal Albert Hall in the late ’70s.
Dusty Springfield – Quiet please, There’s a lady on stage
Take-away: Charismatic crooner Leah Yorkston fleshes out a secretive soul singer whom the playwrights merely sketched.
–Lee Williams, for The Oregonian/OregonLive
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“Forever Dusty”
Where: The Sanctuary at Sandy Plaza, 1785 N.E. Sandy Blvd.
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, through Feb. 25 (no Sunday performance on Feb. 5)
Tickets: $15-$35, trianglepro.org or 503-239-5919
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