I spoke with actress and cabaret performer Klea Blackhurst, who will be starring in the new Off-Broadway musical, Just Desserts: A Musical Bake-Off. The show opens at the AMT Theater (354 West 45th Street) beginning January 30, 2026, and running through February 22.
In Just Desserts, we meet a variety of contestants: A determined young woman dreaming of opening her own bakery, a twice-divorced nail technician who wants to fit in with her new boyfriend’s circle of friends, a shy school nurse who is torn between family obligations and a desire to participate, A mysterious man from Brooklyn who arouses suspicion about his past, and the reigning champion who disguises her ruthless drive to win with smiles and pleasantries. Who will win? Who will lose? Who will get their titular just desserts?
You can follow the show on Instagram (@justdessertsmusical) or visit amttheater.org/justdesserts
» You can also checkout my previous interview with Klea from October 2022.
KLEA BLACKHURST is an actress, singer and comedienne known for her award-winning tribute to Ethel Merman, Everything The Traffic Will Allow. Most recently she appeared Off-Broadway with Hayley Mills in the comedy, Party Face, at City Center Stage 2. She starred in Hazel during its world premiere production at Drury Lane in Chicago, as Dolly Levi in the highly acclaimed Fiftieth Anniversay production of Hello, Dolly! at The Goodspeed Opera House and as Miss Lemon in The Nutty Professor, which premiered in Nashville, directed by legendary comedian, Jerry Lewis and featuring a score by Marvin Hamlisch and Rupert Holmes. Klea also played Rose in Drury Lane Chicago’s production of Gypsy, garnishing rave reviews in 2012.
She’s performed with symphony orchestras and in theatrical productions across the country and abroad including the London Palladium presentation of Jerry Herman’s Broadway with Angela Lansbury, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra tribute to Marvin Hamlisch,, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, 15 Mabel Mercer Foundation Cabaret Conventions, New York’s Town Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, New York’s 92nd Street Y Lyrics & Lyricists, The Chicago Humanities Festival and as Ado Annie in the BBC Proms concert of Oklahoma! in London’s Royal Albert Hall. In addition to regular appearances at New York’s famed Birdland, Klea’s nightclub engagements include tributes to the Broadway career of composer Vernon Duke at the Café Carlyle with a subsequent sold-out engagement at Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater and “Dreaming of a Song: The Music of Hoagy Carmichael,” a collaboration with Billy Stritch.
On television she has appeared in Ryan Murphy’s Pose and The Knick, on Showtime. She spent two seasons as former prosecutor, Shelby Cross, on the IFC Channel comedy series, Onion News Network. She’s done the requisite Law and Order: SVU, spent a week on Sesame Street and was a musical guest on The Rosie O’Donnell Show.
Theatre credits include: in New York – A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Bingo, By Jupiter, Radio Gals, Oil City Symphony; Regionally – Ragtime, Call Me Madam, Chicago, The Great American Trailer Park Musical, Red Hot and Blue and Anything Goes.
Klea’s albums are on the Ghostlight Records label and available at ghostlightrecords.com and cdbaby.com. She’s featured on “Jule Styne in Hollywood” on PS Classics; the original cast recordings of Bingo and Radio Gals; “Lost in Boston IV,” “Unsung Irving Berlin,” and “The Best of Off Broadway.” Klea is a Distinguished Alumna of The University of Utah and created Klea Blackhurst’s Old School, a 4 week master class, a practical application of the American Musical Theatre. Participants learn theatre history, anatomy, acoustics, physiology and the joy of standing up and singing out!
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