Review: Cabaret darling McKay sings

Nellie McKay with bassist Alexi David, left, and drummer Kenneth Salters during her revue "A Girl Named Bill" Monday night. at the Dakota.

photo: JEFF WHEELER, STAR TRIBUNE

There was an undeniable gleam in her eyes and an unerasable smile on her face. They betrayed how New York cabaret darling Nellie McKay was privately winking at the audience throughout her performance of “A Girl Named Bill” on Monday at the Dakota Jazz Club.

McKay’s cabaret musical tells the true story of Billy Tipton, a jazz pianist/singer from the late 1930s until the 1970s who was discovered to be anatomically female during a 1989 autopsy in Spokane. There has been an opera, a play and an off-Broadway musical about Tipton; there’s even a Seattle feminist band called the Billy Tipton Memorial Saxophone Quartet.

But there’s nothing quite like McKay. She’s not normal, which is a good thing, especially for tackling Tipton’s life story. The abundantly talented 34-year-old is smart and smart-alecky, clever and creative, fast and fearless, proudly unhip and gleefully old-fashioned. She likes to challenge herself and her audience. And that’s what she’s doing with “A Girl Named Bill.”


In these Caitlyn Jenner times, this musical about gender fluidity could provide profound commentary and wide resonance. However, by sticking to song and dialogue, McKay doesn’t make Tipton’s story clear enough. The entertaining 75-minute musical begs for narration so the audience can connect the dots. And hyperactive McKay could slow down a tad so the jokes and emotions can settle in.

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