Connie Champagne at her “Brand New Me” show. Photo by Rink.

This is the last weekend you can hear Connie Champagne interpreting Dusty Springfield songs. No, Connie is NOT doing Judy Garland. Nor is she doing Dusty Springfield. She is doing herself slightly Dustified (Springfielded?) with a whole lot of self revelation. The slightly dark show at New Conservatory Theatre Center is entitled “Brand New Me,” and it’s a brand new Champagne. The black and white set is right out of the ‘60s with several stacked giant geometric cubes, a black leather swivel tub chair, and a huge closet marked accordingly. Springfield was early on a closeted lesbian. But there will be more closets opened that evening.

Champagne comes onstage in a black and white ‘60s op art top and long, straight dirty blonde wig, opening with Carole King’s “Goin’ Back,” and she WILL take us back to the early Dusty days. She sings the title song with lots of pep and verve. Then she does a bookend set – with Springfield’s last song, “What Have I Done to Deserve This” and her very first hit, “Silver Threads and Golden Needles.” She will come out of her second closet (the first being her admitting she’s a drag queen) and reveal her true name (not the Champagne one). She will tell of her early days in Placerville.

It surprised me when she took the bouncy “I Only Want to be with You” and made it a ballad – slowing the tempo down considerably. But it worked.

What does the late great DQ Doris Fish and her midnight cult classic, Vegas in Space, have to do with Springfield? Well, Champagne sang Dusty’s “Stay Awhile” in that wacky flick. How does Champagne feel about same-sex marriage? She fully supports it - announcing her musical director/ pianist Joe Collins is getting man-married in a few months – but she wants nothing to do with hetero marriage any more. She goes right into a vivacious “Wishin’ and Hopin’” to musically advise us single gay guys to “hold him and kiss him and squeeze him and love him, and we will be his.”

One of my favorite parts of the show is when the lights go red as Champagne slinks into that leather revolving chair to give her sexy, scintillating rendition of “The Look of Love,” which Springfield sang in the Casino Royale movie. Then the lights come up and the beat changes as she gets gritty to do a rockin’ “Son of a Preacher Man,” along with a slightly shocking revelation of her similar experience as a very young girl. Then it’s a really bright “Sunny” she brings to the stage.

Claiming to be “freakishly pre-menopausal” and recovering from a bad breakup, she will sing a slew of dark and dank Dusty breakup songs. She will also compare herself to Ms Springfield and her rehab experience and battle with breast cancer. Dusty lost. Connie won. Thank god, because I don’t know what we would do without the classy, sassy Champagne in our lives!

“Brand New Me” runs this weekend, Friday, Saturday, and matinee Sunday. Tix are at nctcsf.org or (415) 861-8972.