JAZZ REVIEW : Audience in Eartha’s Orbit at the Cinegrill

The name, with its sensual resonances, still fits, even after all these years. Eartha Kitt: the suggestion of deep primal energies connected to a playful feline association. The perfect appellation for a performer whose almost shamanistic earthiness is energized with flashes of cat-like high voltage.

Returning to the Southland for the first time in two years, Kitt’s opening-night performance at the Cinegrill Tuesday night was a classic presentation of the original Cat Woman on the prowl. Looking almost as lithe and supple as she did in her early years as a dancer, Kitt stalked around the tiny stage restlessly, pausing occasionally to capture a member of the audience with a penetrating gaze, then moving on with a hearty, growling burst of laughter.

She sang many of her big songs from the ‘50s: “C’est Si Bon,” “I Wanna Be Evil,” “An Old-Fashioned Girl.” Each typified her enormously successful characterization of a worldly wise woman who knew the value of a dollar--and then some.

But her best work took place on other numbers--especially the medleys of “Guess Who I Saw Today”/”Could I Leave You?” and “The Blues”/”St. Louis Blues”--in which she displayed her rich skills as a chanteuse in the archetypal French style. Like Edith Piaf, Kitt is a superb actress and storyteller. Her dramatic sense of timing--with an occasional pause in the rhythm and a penetrating flash of her eyes--even made songs like “I’m Still Here” and “I Will Survive” something more than bitter reminiscences of past glories.

Clearly, Eartha Kitt is doing a lot more than surviving. Far from the one-note characterization that first made her reputation, she now is a consummate cabaret performer, one of the best in the world. Her two-week engagement is a must-attend for anyone who cares to experience the glory of a mature and exhilarating artist at the peak of her skills.

Kitt continues at the Cinegrill tonight through Saturday and Tuesday through next Thursday.