Review: AN EVENING WITH MARLOW & MOSS 3: LOST IN NEW YORK - Boom Goes The Dynamite at Feinstein's/54 Below

Heigh-Ho, my merry band of rainbow readers! Bobby Patrick, your RAINBOW reviewer here. Putting the silent T in CABARET to bring you all the T.

Lambiekins, whoever said, "Youth is wasted on the wrong people," was not in attendance Monday night to see (and hear) AN EVENING WITH MARLOW & MOSS 3: LOST IN NEW YORK at the FAB Feinstein's/54 Below. The composer-lyricist-writer-director team that has brought this season's ultimate expression of GEN Z-ness to the Broadway, SIX, held court at F/54B bringing the fully packed house a setlist of all new songs culled almost exclusively from several of their current works-in-progress. Though much of the show was given over to their guests to sing, the evening also demonstrated that these two twenty-something multi-hyphenates have an additional hyphen in their hatbox - that of performers. As composers, their songs were absolutely rife with moments that can only be described as THEATRE! Each song was a specific moment from a musical with all the requisite drama folded wonderfully into the poetry set to music that each character needed to go along with their emotional state. The program went running back and forth through their generation's intense steeplechase of life, jobs, unrequited roommate love, posting, DM'ing, breadcrumbing (google it), texting, and those three little dots disappearing. Each song leading to the next added to the tapestry of how this new world, that so many are afraid of but which is here already, is really just a new generation's version of how things have always been done in the landscape of life, liberty and the pursuit of... a shiny red ball. Despite some charming youthful affectations, TBH Little Bobby could easily qualify as a crotchety oldster, but it must be said - each time we hear someone bemoaning how the young people of today have lost the ability to interpersonally communicate, we immediately chime in with, "No they haven't. They are evolving their own with its own verbiage and set of rules and they are abandoning ours which is EXACTLY what they are supposed to do, and not a moment too soon," we say. For those of us who are middle-aged (and then some) it can be quite dizzying, but Marlow & Moss's work can show us that it is the same for Gen Z'ers, they've just learned to navigate it and we haven't... which is why we don't like it.

Each song performed by the company of Marlow, Moss, Rachel Webb, Zak Ghazi-Torbati & Joe Beighton (Piano & Vocals) had at its core exactly what it needs to tell a story - dramatic tension. Each song impossible without the presence, real or imaginary, or sitting in the audience, of a scene partner for the actors to play to. Each actor fully invested in the character they were playing, their words, and the music with not a music stand in sight - standing on stage asking for love, respect, to be seen, to be heard, to vent their frustrations, or all of the above all at the same time. Rachel Webb's JUST IN CASE stood out in its heart-string tugging longing as she was "Waiting for your ringtone." Webb is in that category of singing actors who live in a moment so naturally and sing with such range and skill that she makes it all look easy. Ghazi-Torbati's tall lanky, comic abilities that matched Marlow's on song number two - STAY INSIDE, a paean to roomies who fall for each other, hinted at the gifts he continued to deliver throughout the program in his skilled acting and singing and being generally adorable. And speaking of adorable, there was the evening's keyboardist, Joe Beighton, who shared the piano bench with Marlow accompanying their friends and adding their voices with Beighton's being a fine rangey tenor that offset the other two players singing in baritone... And then there was Marlow & Moss themselves. Aside from having one of the great writing team names - I mean, come on! MMMMMarlow & MMMMMoss - a deep and fascinating understanding of the times in which they are living and growing and creating, the skill to make an audience feel more than listen, and the wisdom to put it into song; not to mention to create a full broadway musical for those times that is less than 90 minutes long, they also have the chops to get out there on the stage and engage with their gifts that so wonderfully engage their audience. Marlow's time at the piano performing the self-penned pop single RATHER BE WITH YOU was a personal highlight, and then there was Marlow's bestie, Moss, who bemoaned her singing and piano playing and then sat down on the bench and tore our hearts out with LOST. We've used that word, longing already in this love letter, but that is truly the essential element that tied each and every song together throughout LOST IN NY. Songs from people who were longing because they were lost... lost in their lives, lost in the heads, experiencing loss, or the deep terror of maybe losing... something - probably that shiny red ball. The truth is my dearlings, The future is here and its name is Marlow & Moss. Keep watch out for any and all of the work by this pair and if they or their shows are within your reach - don't hesitate to go. One hopes that F/54B will program this program or any other creations by Toby & Lucy in the days, months, and years ahead (hint, HINT!).

As you can tell this has been a rave because AN EVENING WITH MARLOW & MOSS 3: LOST IN NEW YORK did exactly what it was supposed to do - gave this dynamite team a chance to see how audiences would react to their new work and gave the audience the intense desire to buy tickets to it all, and for all of that and a whole lot more, Bobby MUST give this one his full...

5 Out of 5 Rainbows

Marlow & Moss Display Their Co-Twitters: HERE

Toby Marlow's Tweetings Are: HERE

Lucy Moss's Twitters Are: HERE

Toby Keeps His Insta-Pictograms: HERE

And Lucy's Are: HERE

All Photos By Yours Truly, Bobby Patrick

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