Lena Horne on Broadway

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Part way through her show, Horne sings her trademark song, Stormy Weather, softly and seductively, just as the audience expects to hear it. Then, near the very end, she announces that she is going to do a number that she had to "grow into." And once again she begins, "Don't know why, there's no sun up in the sky." But this is a different Stormy Weather, sung from the gut and the soul, as if she had not only grown into it but out of it. The message is clear: it has taken a lot of doing, and a lot of stormy weather along the way, but Lena Horne has finally grown into being Lena Horne. By Gerald Clarke