Review: Lance Horne Unveils New Work (With a Little Help From His Friends) in First Show of His Residency at Joe's Pub

Sitting in my seat watching Lance Horne and his many friends perform at NEW WORK, NEW WORK I: EXTRAORDINARY DAYS at Joe's Pub, I couldn't help but feel like I was at a really great dinner party (if I were invited to dinner parties with some of the most talented artists in the city). The seats---and, in this case, the songs---were assigned, but the host didn't try and force conversation, and the whole affair was better for it.

The purpose of the November 21 show, the first in a year-long residency directed by Sam Buntrock, was for the successful composer and musical director to showcase his recent work, and, for new material, Horne's songs were quite polished.

It wasn't Horne himself doing the honor of getting the party started, but the Varsity Interpretive Dance Squad, inexplicably but enjoyably bumping and grinding all over the stage in matching tracksuits (and little underneath them) as Meghan Trainor's "Me Too" played.

Taking the stage fashionably late, Horne took his turn, crooning "The 1000 Colors" (Horne/Jake Shears), a simple ballad from a project about PT Barnum that would've been better served at the tail-end of the evening.

Nathan Lee Graham savored each syllabic morsel in his theatrical take on "Outta This Fast," after which the transcendent Justin Vivian Bond (most recently in THE GOLDEN AGE OF JUSTIN VIVIAN BOND at Joe's Pub) took the crowd on a gravelly journey through the "Streets of Berlin" (Horne/Shears) from BENT, with Alphonso Horne on trumpet. Taking the political temperature of the room, Bond deadpanned, "I asked to go on early because I may have a train to catch soon." And from the uproarious reaction to the joke and the feverish applause after the number, it's safe to say they would have followed Bond just about anywhere.

In a preview of the residency's next installment, NEW WORK NEW WORK II: THE NIGHT BEFORE MY WEDDING, Alexandra Silber (FIDDLER ON THE ROOF) debuted a song called "The Rhyme Maidens." The number was an adaptation of poetry author Neil Gaiman wrote for his wife, Amanda Palmer. Part of his and Horne's collaboration, from which the second show's subtitle takes its name, "The Rhyme Maidens" was beautiful, if a bit lyrically overstuffed.

One of the great joys of the show was imagining how such wildly different pieces could fit in the same puzzle. While Horne offered morsels of the story, this was particularly true of his excerpts of THE DEVIL'S HALO, a musical Horne's developing based on an Anne Rice short story. Horne left the piano playing to Brian Nash as he took center stage for his second time on vocals, singing "Both Ways."

With Mariella Haubs on violin, Juilliard student Mikaela Bennett belted out a jaw-dropping operatic rendition of the title track, in which the character comes to terms with an illicit relationship that's cost her nearly everything. After her bombastic performance, Bennett could've sang every word from INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE and the audience still probably would've hoped for an encore. She didn't, but the crowd got an encore anyway. This time, though, the show had moved to New Orleans, with Bennett crushing a jazzy and far more understated number called "Another New Bad Idea."

Unfortunately for Frances Thorburn, her first song, "I'll Be Here," was sandwiched in the middle. Her rendition was lovely, but after "The Devil's Halo," anything would have felt comparatively sedate. Luckily, Thorburn got her due later on in the show, with her joyous performance of "Blitz Mode," a confection of a song Horne penned about his addiction to the Disney Emoji app.

Aside from "Blitz Mode" and a few other standalone tracks, most numbers were part of one of Horne's in-the-works projects. Still, with such an eclectic mix of genres even within said projects, the whole set list could've been put on shuffle and the show would not have suffered much at all.

That is, except for the performance's impeccably constructed final act, beginning with "Extraordinary Days" from the musical THE $TRIP, performed by Sienna Miller (CABARET). Miller's soft-spoken delivery was a great match for the bittersweet lullaby, which encapsulates that feeling of, even as an adult, being an unattended child in a grown-up world.

But the night didn't end there, because, as was said during the show, "Anyone who thinks the theater is a safe space has never been to Joe's Pub." Alan Cumming (CABARET) closed out NEW WORK, NEW WORK I with a one-two punch of "Last Day on Earth" and "American."

"Last Day" was a heart-rending ballad for anyone who has "forgotten how to dream, how to fly," as Cumming insisted that nothing was going to keep him from trying. But it was his final song, "American," that came as subtly as a punch to the gut. With lyrics that couldn't be timelier if Horne had written them that very day, exploding in a near-shout as he sang, "I hate to listen, I hate the other way/I hate who they tell me to, but who the hell are they."

Cummings's take on "American" was poignant and cutting, concluding with a resigned, "This land is my land, I can feel it in my bones." The comedown was swift, like when you've had one glass of wine too many. Yet, the night was no less a delight for it.

So bravo on an extraordinary dinner party, Mr. Horne. I hope I get an invite to the next one.

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Lance Horne's NEW WORK, NEW WORK II: THE NIGHT BEFORE MY WEDDING will be at Joe's Pub on February 5, 2017. For tickets and reservations, visit www.publictheater.org.

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