Review: DeAnne Stewart Celebrates Duality & Humanity In TWO SIDES TO EVERY STORY At The Green Room 42

Heigh-Ho, My Merry Rainbow Tribe! Bobby Patrick your RAINBOW Reviewer here. Putting the silent T in cabareT to bring you all the T!

You know something, my lovelies? There is this trick a lot of journalistic contributors default to in order to get themselves started on a piece they are writing. It's that thing where, right off the bat, they offer up a dictionary definition of a word and then expound on it from there making some vague association to their subject matter. Bobby really hates this trick... We are using the word HATE here...

e·bul·lient /iˈbo͝olyənt,iˈbəlyənt/ adjective

1. cheerful and full of energy.

"she sounded ebullient and happy"

2. ((ARCHAIC))

(of liquid or matter) boiling or agitated as if boiling.

"misted and ebullient seas"

Funny though - despite Bobby's snark about this very low literary diving board - this word, and now both its accepted definitions, perfectly fit the personality and performance style of one - DeAnne Stewart - who made her solo cabaret debut Monday night at The Greenroom 42 (TGR42) in, TWO SIDES TO EVERY STORY. With a crowd that was fully THERE for her as she entered and wound her way through the audience singing the Noisettes WILD YOUNG HEARTS, this cheerful and full of energy, self-described "stuck in the middle" millennial was a feast to the ears and eyes, resplendent in a hot pink cape jacket and slacks with her natural hair doing its own thing on top of her head. The "misted and ebullient seas" of her voice would alternately lilt and break like waves on the shores of every table in the room. A focussed and pointed sound that was completely malleable, moving from rock to pop to Broadway with no more effort than breathing. A voice that was at times boiling with emotion, at others filled with the kind of in-the-moment emphasis only a fine singing actress can possess. Always bringing joy to the room whether with a song of longing and lost innocence like Jake Wesley Rogers PLUTO which brought gasps of subtextual recognition from the room or her nifty pronoun flip midway through WHEN HE (She) SEES ME celebrating not only her own queerness but everybodys'. Black she is and queer she is and an activist for both as well as for the natural African American hair movement, Stewart wears and sings all of her facets proudly and with great depth of feeling ... and no fear. This is a young woman flying in the face of any that would silence her, celebrating all that is other in herself and in the world. Her message is simple - Love makes us all equal. Her talents, so far used for replacement work on tour and on the Broadway where she has also been employed as an ESSENTIAL WORKER, otherwise known as swing & understudy, shine with real star power and left little Bobby to muse here in print about her future turn in an original role's spotlight. She's got the goods and all she needs is the show - side note, she's already got the girl. Calling out her wife Emily from the stage who apparently inquired throughout rehearsals which songs were about her, DS joked, "This time the show's not about you baby." And speaking of BABY - the most heartfelt and exciting moment of the show came when, during her FABULOUS rendition of Maltby & Shire's THE STORY GOES ON, DeAnne took the moment to announce to the room and to the utter astonishment of her friends in the crowd, that she and Emily are expecting their first child. Showing the sonogram on the vid screens, she teared up, but still finished the song over the audience's reactions of, "WHAT IS GOING ON HERE? WHAT GIRL WHAT?!" and other exclamations. It was a joyous highlight and finale to the show. Not willing to let her go, her audience was on their feet immediately demanding that encore and remained standing through SIMPLY THE BEST to dance, clap and celebrate the joy DeAnne had brought to them all. With expert support from Music Director, Cynthia Meng (Company, Suffs). Band members; Mike Rosengarten (Be More Chill) on guitar, Yuka Tadano (Suffs, Smokey Joe's Cafe) on bass, and Dena Taureiello (Little Shop of Horrors) on drums the entire set of covers felt like an original record album one buys, knowing you must listen from start to finish to make the entire journey but performed live in so relaxed and engaging a manner that even the minor fluffs of lyrics here and there only brought the room closer to her. An outcome she wanted right from the start.

There are those performers who are so proficient that they continually must live up to their own standard while always raising their personal bar. Then there are those who are born to perform. They have no bar and wouldn't care if there were one because their standards come from a heart where there are no limitations or lines to cross. DeAnne Stewart has all that and IS all that and for that Bobby must give TWO SIDES TO EVERY STORY his full...

5 Out Of 5 Rainbows

DeAnne Spins Her Web: HERE

Check Out Her InstaqPictograms: HERE

Look Up Her YouTubes: HERE

Ande Followe On Ye Olde FaceBooke: HERE

Check Out All Things TGR42 & Get Tickets: HERE

All Photos By Yours Truly, Bobby Patrick

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