Review: Kelly Howe's Linda Ronstadt Soars in Just One Look at Blue Strawberry

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Todd Davis

Kelly Howe is a convincing Linda Ronstadt in Just One Look.

Linda Ronstadt is having a moment. Her heartrending “Long, Long Time” was featured on HBO’s The Last of Us — and if there’s any recipe these days for breaking through the noise to become a bona fide sensation, it’s being on the soundtrack of a hit HBO show. 

If you were born after, say, 1975, you know Ronstadt, if you know her at all, as the wide-eyed presence on the cover of your parents’ old Pirates of Penzance cast recording or as the must-be-famous singer in a bolero jacket hamming it up on Sesame Street. You probably didn’t know she hung out with Mick Jagger and brought the Eagles together. You wouldn’t have known she was besties with Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton, much less connected her to top-40 hits as disparate as “Blue Bayou” and “Poor Poor Pitiful Me.” You’d have no idea that — before she retired to San Francisco, before a disorder akin to Parkinson’s stopped her in her tracks — Linda Ronstadt was cool.

The new two-actor show at the Blue Strawberry, Just One Look, makes a terrific case that Ronstadt is more than just one song and more than worthy of your time. Written and directed by Joe Hanrahan, the Midnight Company’s 90-minute production expertly utilizes the venue’s tiny cabaret stage to keep the spotlight on Kelly Howe, who positively dazzles as Ronstadt. With a voice so powerful it nearly knocked out the sound system during last night’s premiere, Howe inhabits Ronstadt so completely she even seems to look like her, despite wisely eschewing the singer’s 1980s mop of hair for timeless bangs. 

The setup is simple, as befits the stage: Longtime journalist Lonny Anderson (Hanrahan, channeling a cross between Joe Edwards and a British Ray Hartmann) indulges in his crush on Ronstadt, interviewing her at length about her hit songs. Lonny never really gets anywhere with the coquettish singer, but that’s not the point — he’s simply the setup to let Ronstadt belt out her favorite songs, and belt them she does. It’s an astonishing parade of hit after hit after genre-defying hit, ably assisted by Curt Landes on piano, Tom Maloney on guitar and Mark Rogers on percussion. (Landes and Rogers even manage to fill in for Parton and Harris on backup vocals for one song — no small feat.)

That this production is taking place at the Blue Strawberry adds to the fun. This isn’t the sort of intricately plotted play that requires audiences to sit still and focus. Instead, Howe’s beautiful vocals invite us to lean back, relax with a cocktail and remember the music we took for granted on the soundtrack of our youths. That the cabaret-style venue allows audiences to get dinner first, and keep drinking throughout the show, provides an apropos intimacy that only puts Howe’s talents in higher relief. 

Yes, there’s the occasional crash of silverware in the hallway, and you might notice your server slip past to bring the adjacent table a drink. But sitting in the positively packed cabaret, with hits breaking over you like a tidal wave, you might fool yourself into thinking you’re seeing Ronstadt at the height of her powers in an intimate venue. Thanks to Howe, Hanrahan and the rest of this thoroughly enjoyable production, you can’t help but marvel — what a show that would have been!

Just One Look is directed and written by Joe Hanrahan. Presented by Midnight Theatre Company at Blue Strawberry (364 North Boyle Ave, bluestrawberrystl.com) on Wednesdays through March 15. Tickets $25 with a $20 food and drink minimum.