Sat. June 30

  How to explain Kiki & Herb? They’re a lounge act, a duo, that met when they were both dumped at an institution, maybe around 1930. They were diagnosed as “retards,” and discovered they each had an obsession with music – he piano, she voice. Herb also decided he was Jewish and gay; Kiki was straight and produced a few children over the years. Some are alive, some not. And here they are in the South End at the Calderwood Theatre with a stretch of shows that concludes tonight, Saturday  June 30, giving us “Kiki & Herb: Alive From Broadway,” an hour-and-45 minute trip through time, through music (Gnarls Barkley to Brigh Eyes to Elliot Smith to Scissor Sisters.), through politics, through pathos, through booze (most stage booze, a little real) and up to a conclusion, voiced by Kiki that life would be better if people were nicer to each other.
Kiki is actually Justin Bond and Herb is actually Kenny Mellman and they started this parodic, camp lounge act in San Francisco 14 years ago. This year they were nominted for a Tony in the “special events” category. This happened the same day Jerry Falwell died, which Kiki called being “doubly blessed” at a performance early in their run. (They lost the Tony, and the winner was, well, not gracious, they said from the stage.) What they do on stage is create this slightly dim, rather boozy, sometimes razor-sharp duo, with Herb serving as a foil (vocally and with expressions) to Kiki’s rampage through pop music and culture. At one point, Kiki thanks the gays for keeping their act going all these years, and then the Catholic Church, because without their hostility … Kiki did praise the Church, though, for selecting a “Nazi pope,” and, thus, finally “coming out of the closet.”
Speaking of Catholicism, Kiki reveals at one point she and Herb were born before Jesus was and were present at his birth. They also drank from the cow – Daisy – which ate the afterbirth. So, cow, Herb and Kiki all became eternal. (The cow is a stuffed animal that rests on Herb’s grand piano.)
Outlandish? Oh, a little. Entertaining? Highly. The show runs Tuesday – Thursday at 7:30, Friday and Saturday at 8, and Sunday June 17 (only) at 2 p.m. Tickets: $50-$40.

527 Tremont St., www.huntingtheatre.org