Review: BROADWAY OUR WAY! A CCM CELEBRATION Is Worth Celebrating at Feinstein's/54 Below

The world is full of too many anagrams, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to remember what each of them means. While reading the 54 Below event calendar, seeing a title like BROADWAY OUR WAY! A CCM CELEBRATION is not something that just reaches out and grabs a person and says come see this show. Aside from the anagram and not wanting to do the research to find out what the heck CCM is, the title Broadway Our Way is a little vague and unimpressive, so, why bother, really?

Well, when you click on the event and find out that the program is going to feature Blaine Alden Krauss, Lisa Howard, Alexa Green and Lee Roy Reams you have your answer. Yes. This is a show you want to see. When you get to the club and the show starts and you learn that Scott Coulter is your host for the evening, it's hard not to ask why his name wasn't on the advertising - because that's really all it would have taken to get you into the club and into your seat. If this is a Scott Coulter production, it's going to be good: satisfaction guaranteed.

It turns out that CCM stands for University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (which makes a person better appreciate the anagram) and it turns out that this institution of higher learning has some special power when it comes to sending talent to Broadway. The program's first-ever graduate was Pamela Myers (class of '69) is a beloved artist in the history of Broadway, and the celebrity performers on Monday night are all successful singing actors from that same history. Each year the graduates of the program come to New York to make their NYC cabaret debuts, something that couldn't happen in 2019 and 2020, and that is the reason why Coulter and all the other CCM alumni gathered together this week - to celebrate the program, the graduates, and their own pride in their alma mater with two back-to-back performances.

The ninety-minute program helmed by Mr. Coulter was as good as any show Coulter produces through his company Spot-On Entertainment, even though the experience level of all of the performers is wildly different. From Lee Roy Reams, whose career spans more years than gallantry permits stating, to the young people coming out of CCM these days, the skillsets are as varied as a talent buffet on Broadway. Nevertheless, each performance was enjoyable and worth celebrating, especially when presented in a manner so professional that all of the actors were off-book, allowing them to actually perform fully-realized musical monologues that didn't feature the reading of one (not one!) lyric sheet. THANK YOU to CCM and to Coulter for putting professionals up on the stage of a cabaret where people pay to see musical acting and not karaoke. Thank you to each of the singing actors who made this show happen. Thank you, CCM, for preparing your graduates properly for their life in the theater, and, graduates, please stay this professional for the rest of your careers - it will serve you and your audiences.

During the hour and a half of the truly magnificent show, one couldn't help but ask what the heck are they putting in the water in Cincinnati. When celebrities like Reams, Howard, and the rest of the established cast appear in public and sing, it's a foregone conclusion that they are going to be wonderful. When graduates from a university make their New York City cabaret debut, there is also some expectation that at least one performer will not rise to the occasion, possibly two. Nope. Not on this night. All the artists coming out of CCM will be well-outfitted to take their place among the musical theater and nightclub performers of society. While all of the acts were wonderful, particular standouts were Veronica Stern & Nick Berninger's "Suddenly Seymour" and John Collins' "This World Will Remember Me" and, although their performances of "A Sunday Kind of Love" and "Sing Happy" were completely wonderful, it was nice to see fashion-minded Madison Deadman and Erich Schleck demonstrate the power of bringing all the sides of yourself to your nightclub appearance.

As for the celebrity participants, no stone was left unturned in everyone's effort to showcase the level of quality that has come out of CCM over the years, but there can also be no denying that Lee Roy Reams was the hit of the evening with an extensive look back at his life-long association with the play Hello, Dolly! Whether he has to dig as deeply as any artist does or this just comes as naturally as breathing, Mr. Reams left the audience whisper-quiet, awe-struck, and stunned by his acting (the oak leaf monologue was tear-inducing), his singing (he needed no microphone to get those gorgeous Jerry Herman songs out) and his energy (every actor should commit this well, for any performance), to say nothing of the charm of his asides to the graduates, all of which made the paying guests laugh right up into the night air. Having Mr. Reams' substantial contribution to the program didn't just reflect well on this one evening's worth of entertainment, it showed the young people of CCM and in the audience just how valuable training is to the career of a performing artist. Still, as considerable as his Hello, Dolly! medley was to the CCM resume on display, it was simply one in a long line of proof provided by the entire cast that something good is happening in Ohio, and the happy beneficiaries of that goodness are the people sitting in the seats out front.

BROADWAY OUR WAY! A CCM CELEBRATION was a special event playing two performances in the same night but other great shows can be found on the 54 Below website HERE.

Editor's note: Maestros Darnell White and Alex Rybeck appeared in the show alongside Blaine Alden Krauss and Lee Roy Reams, respectively - Broadway World was unable to capture their mutual appearances on camera. We apologize to both gentlemen for their photographic absence in this article.

The cast of Broadway Our Way! A CCM Celebration gets a five out of five microphones rating for performing their entire show without the use of a lyric sheet, tablet, or music stand.

Photos by Stephen Mosher

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