Review: Deon'te Goodman Fulfills Cabaret Fantasies With DREAM A LITTLE DREAM at Feinstein's/54 Below

As the city of New York has re-opened, re-awakened, and reclaimed the life that lay, for many months, dormant during the health crisis, nightclub performers have stood on the stages of the cabaret rooms around Manhattan, remarking on the relief of being back in front of live audiences. So relieved are the artists of the community that, even in group shows where it runs to the repetitive, each artist has succumbed to the urge to comment on their pandemic experience. The personal confessions do not contribute to the stories in the hour-long shows, for the most part: they are merely utterances of amelioration being shared between humans with a mutual experience.

That was not the case when Deon'te Goodman presented DREAM A LITTLE DREAM at Feinstein's/54 Below earlier this week.

No hastily-made decision was the choice to present this particular cabaret show in the post-pandemic days. While some artists were so anxious to get back to work that the resulting product presented was a haphazard set of songs read off of a music stand, Deon'te Goodman, a singing actor of considerable talent, took time out to conceive and write, cast and choreograph, and create an entire musical play to put up on the Feinstein's stage. In short, Deon'te Goodman brought to a cabaret room a cabaret show. Written and rehearsed and presented with utmost professionalism, Dream a Little Dream was as surprising as it was enjoyable, and not just slightly enjoyable in that doesn't-this-singer-sing-good-songs-well kind of way. With each passing number and the introduction of each additional cast member, Mr. Goodman's show became one repeatedly inspiring even more raised eyebrows, additional mouths agape, increasing applause, louder laughter, and hands thrown up in the air in appreciative disbelief. Deon'te Goodman did his homework and got dressed before he left the house to do his show. Deon'te Goodman did his profession proud.

The concept of Mr. Goodman's show was a fairy tale that began, like so many shows these days, with a private chat between him and the audience about the heinous fifteen months of our recent lives. With his pleasant enough opening, delivered by way of an incredible singing voice, Goodman appeared to be setting off on a rote nightclub journey... until he surprised everyone by introducing the device that would make the evening so special: A SCRIPT! A STORY! Intricately written and immaculately performed, Dream a Little Dream told the tale of a young man overwrought and overwhelmed by the pandemic of 2020, so much so that the only way to escape it was to sleep it off. In sleep, the character has a Dorothy Gale-Esque adventure in a far-off land where he encounters beautiful, strange, exciting beings that help him get back to the place where he, once, was happy. Through the beauty of the imagery created by his words and the beauty of his multi-racial cast, Mr. Goodman was able to create an experience that harkened back to two musicals from the Seventies that brought together diversity, hope, spirituality, and imagination, Godspell and The Wiz, only Dream a Little Dream works better for Deon'te and co. because the patchwork quilt of a play is pieced together in his imagination, not that of Matthew or of L. Frank Baum. This is theater informed by Goodman, though influenced by other creators, and that is where every cabaret show should start - inside of the imagination of the artist standing at the center mic.

Using compositions from Broadway musicals like The Band's Visit, Caroline Or Change, Carousel and The Wiz, songs by Stevie Wonder, Toddrick Hall, and Sarah Bareilles, and the writings of John Bucchino and Joni Mitchell, as well as one of the greatest songs of all time, written by Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson, Dream a Little Dream was a personal and emotional journey that both thrilled and nourished the patrons of 54 Below who were either wise enough or lucky enough to look past the show's underwhelming artwork and vaguely confusing description on the 54 Below website, artwork and description that did Deon'te no favors, but that obviously did not stop him from selling tickets. The supper club was packed - always a happy sight to see. Maybe the crowd was there just to see Deon'te. Maybe the patrons were the friends and family of his wonderful supporting cast, Tyla Collier, Cindy Tsai, Marquise Hitchcock, and Scott Redmond. Maybe the audience was just a group of people in the right place at the right time, people who were meant to take this journey, folks who were supposed to live in the light of Deon'te Goodman's resplendent artistry and that of his fellow artists.

Whoever they were, friends, family, or strangers, every one of the people at Dream a Little Dream on Wednesday night are pretty darn lucky people, destined to remember this show for a long time to come.

The amazing Dream a Little Dream band was Musical Director and pianist Justin P. Cowan and drummer Nygel D. Robinson

Deon'te Goodman DREAM A LITTLE DREAM was a one-off performance. Check back at the Feinstein's/54 Below website HERE to see if there are further dates announced.

Visit the Deon'te Goodman website HERE

Photos by Stephen Mosher

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