Singing for their supper

Published 9:00 am Wednesday, August 6, 2003

Deborah Cheadle may sing “Don’t Fence Me In,” but there’s little likelihood that the irrepressible island chanteuse could ever be confined.

The cabaret-style vocalist has entertained audiences for the past decade in a wide variety of venues – now expanded to include singing for the supper crowd at Ruby’s On Bainbridge.

Performed Thursday nights throughout the summer, Cheadle’s lively show is accompanied by longtime associate, pianist Daryl Spadaccini.

The act was the brainstorm of Ruby’s owners, Maura and Aaron Crisp, who last spring moved the restaurant “up the hill” from its Lynwood Theater location to the former site of Moonfish.

“(The Crisps) said, ‘we have a lounge now, so we need a lounge singer,’” Cheadle said.

“So I decided to try it through the summer and see the kind of crowd I could draw.”

Cheadle goes on about 8 p.m. for an hour-long show consisting of standards, “obscure” show tunes, and even medleys of cowboy songs.

“There’s even a sing-along of old camp songs because, after all, it’s summer,” she said. “Audiences seem to like it.”

Cheadle herself came to singing 14 years ago when she tried out for Bainbridge Performing Arts musical productions.

“Apparently BPA didn’t recognize my immense talents,” she joked, “so I went to audition in Seattle.”

Without the benefit of any voice training, Cheadle tried out for Seattle Children’s Theater from a book of Irving Berlin songs.

“I went to the audition and opened up the book and handed it to this guy, who turned out to be Daryl. He took one look at me and asked, ‘Can I lower the key?’

“I didn’t know that this was something people could do.”

When, a year later, Cheadle realized that singing was what she wanted to do more than anything, she called Spadaccini, who set her up with a voice teacher in Seattle.

“When I sang 13 years ago,” she remembered, “I had only a ‘chest voice,’ with no vocal training at all, so it just came out extremely unprofessionally, not as performance-quality singing.

“And I was so nervous I had no air at all.”

After about four years of lessons, Cheadle began singing for audiences.

The Ruby’s venture marks her first foray into singing for the dinner crowd – an experiment both for her and for the Crisps, who must determine whether the crowd Cheadle attracts is large enough to justify dispensing with one of the two nightly dinner seatings.

“This is the first time Maura has incorporated music into her restaurant, so there is a lot of trial and error,” Cheadle said.

Restaurant staff have been “very accommodating,” the singer says, and she doesn’t mind it when they serve people food through the show.

“I don’t even mind when people talk,” she said, “as long as there are enough people paying attention so that I’m not singing to myself.”

The show doesn’t charge a cover, Cheadle says, and she pays both accompanist and sound technician. “I have a very expensive art form,” said the singer, who receives tips for her efforts.

“We’re evolving,” she said.

“I’ve given myself through the summer to see how it’s going to go.”