DP News

March 7, 2010

Broadway star returns to perform at Really Cooking

By Sarah Hite shite@timesleader.com
Staff Writer
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Broadway star Terri White first met Gregory Allen about 25 years ago.

The two were working in various piano bars in New York City and became friends.

Now, over two decades later, White is in between Broadway shows and will make her third appearance at Really Cooking Caf� and Supper Club in Dallas. Allen and his partner, George Creel, own the restaurant.

White will perform at the restaurant during the evening of March 15.

“She’s a very utmost professional and does a great performance and she was more than happy to do it for us,” Creel said. “Terri’s kind of on the jazzy and bluesy side and delivers a blow-you-away performance.”

White said she first heard of Really Cooking Caf� and Supper Club from her friend Kelly Briggs, a casting director for Disney stage productions and a booking agent for Really Cooking.

“I found out about their place from a mutual friend that works with them, Kelly Briggs, who I’ve known even longer – since 1979,” White said. “They called me to offer to do an act there. I was more than willing to come out and do it.”

White, 62, was born in California but spent most of her childhood living in New York City. Her parents, Bill and Gertrude White, were performers.

Following in their footsteps, White made it to Broadway where she starred in “Two Gentleman in Verona,” “Barnum,” “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” “Bubbling Brown Sugar,” “Stepping Out at Radio City” and “Welcome to the Club.”

“Music is from the inner soul; it becomes a song,” White said. “I learned very young my singing technique from Mabel Mercer who told me she wasn’t a singer, she was a songstress - a song should have a beginning, middle and an end. I love telling stories with songs.”

After years of performing on and off Broadway, White worked in piano bars in New York City. Her last piano bar job at Rose’s Turn Piano Bar and Caberet in the West Village in Manhattan lasted 15 years until the establishment closed in 2007.

With nearly all piano bars closed in 2008, White found herself out of work and homeless.

“It was just my time alone during that time to rebuild myself and begin to love myself again before anyone else could,” White said.

After three and a half months living on the street, a police officer recognized White and helped her secure a basement apartment rent-free. She wouldn’t be there for long.

Darren Romeo, a magician and a friend of White’s, suggested they go to Tampa Bay, Fla. to visit a friend. While there, White ran into a friend named Pat West, who asked for her help in opening a club called Keys Piano Bar in Key West.

“By the end of the second night she offered me to come back the following week for two weeks and the rest was history,” White said.

White met her partner, a jewelry designer named Donna Barnett, in Key West. The two moved in together and, soon after, White auditioned for the Broadway musical “Finian’s Rainbow.” She landed the role of Dottie, performing in the show for two and a half months until it closed in January.

White and Barnett held a commitment ceremony, attended by Allen and Creel, following a performance of “Finian’s Rainbow” last October. They made their marriage legal on Feb. 4 in Connecticut.

Most recently, White has been asked to take on the roll of Momma Morton in “Chicago,” currently playing on Broadway. She will begin the role sometime in early spring.

White is looking forward to performing once again in the Back Mountain.

“It’s lots of fun,” White said. “The people are great there. It’s fun to look around and see all the faces and people enjoying themselves and being a part of that. That’s what entertainment is all about.”

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