Review: Tony Winner Glenn Close & Grammy Winner Ted Nash Combine To Bring A TRANSFORMATION To Jazz At Lincoln Center

Heigh-Ho, My Merry Rainbow Tribe! Bobby Patrick your RAINBOW Reviewer here. Putting the silent T in CABARET (And This Time in ConcerT) to bring you all the T.

Well, my angels, we found ourselves uptown again this week for a concert presented by the illustrious Jazz At Lincoln Center. Thursday's opening night for TRANSFORMATION WITH Glenn Close AND Ted Nash; an evening of readings and music dedicated, in part, to the Transgender experience as well as other human transformations, began the 3 nights of performances in Rose Hall with electrifying jazz and spoken word art. The fact that Glenn Close and Ted Nash have been friends for many years is not THAT unusual. They have worked together before on his THE PRESIDENTIAL SUITE, but yours truly has never really experienced a creative work combining the kind of complex, layered music that is the jazz of Grammy winner Nash with actor readings. To moi it would seem an odd mix ... until you hear it for yourself. Nor is it unusual that these two artistes would wish to find more ways to experiment in combining their talents and see if their diverse work could mix and make more magic with a message. Actors have worked providing spoken word art with symphony orchestras for time out of mind, but to take 21st-century music played by a 21st-century BAND and enhance it with stirring literature on 21st-century topics takes someone like Glenn Close to conceive, curate and perform. Under the gentle direction of Danny Gorman, Ms. Close and her compatriots took to the stage to read pieces she selected and for which Nash composed an original score. Not all the works centered on transgender topics. Indeed, the evening's real theme of transformation brought works about growing up, changing ideas & ideals, life lessons learned, etc. Nash's son Eli is trans and his letter to his father, DEAR DAD*, where he explains his need to transform became a stunning duet between the reading and Dad's soprano saxophone playing - a son's words inspiring a father's music in a combination both touching and uplifting. One would wish that all parents of trans children would hear and feel this kind of love shared by Ted and Eli Nash.

Another story that stood out was Matthew Stevenson's simple and honest reading, RISING OUT OF HATRED, about the young white supremacist influencer he befriended in college and who was transformed through Stevenson's standing invitations to Shabbat (Sabbath) dinner every Friday, culminating in Derek Black disavowing his Neo-Nazism. There was also more than the spoken word to go with the music, indeed there was superb singing and dancing. In the singing department, John Cameron Mitchell's sharp, biting I SEE WHAT I AM (made all the more so by Nash's arrangement) was a beautifully dizzying Act 1 finale, juxtaposed with Justin Vivian Bond's smoky, sexy Act 2 opener, the Joni Mitchell/Charles Mingus' song, SWEET SUCKER DANCE. And speaking of dance... Offering up choreography by Jared Grimes as well as his own thrilling dance improvisation throughout the program, Nijawwon Matthews, a master teacher/performer at the Joffrey Ballet School, interpreted Nash's transformative music in ways that were for all HUMANkind; indescribable in print so it is this rainbow writer's wish that you see it for yourself and as you have 2 more chances, we suggest you click the ticket link below and go... Go... Go, my children.

We could go on giving spoilers of the evening about how heartfelt Amy Irving's two readings were, how brilliant Adriane Lenox sang LULLABY (with a little surprise that took our breath away,) or how handsome Wayne Brady's powerful voice and powerful message in his ANGRIEST BLACK MAN... essay moved this writer to tears and laughter, but that would just be us belaboring the point. And then, of course, there was Glenn Close, Glenn Close, Glenn Close. Three times she came to the stage to read and three times she touched her audience in ways that are probably still affecting them the following day. It is immeasurable, the kind of impact a creative work like TRANSFORMATION can have, as the ripples it creates grow and expand ever outward; and for all this music, words and beauty, we must give TRANSFORMATION WITH Glenn Close AND Ted Nash our full 5 out of 5 Rainbows.

For Tickets to TRANSFORMATION at Jazz At Lincoln Center Click: HERE

To read Stephen Mosher's Interview with Close & Nash go: HERE

*(DEAR DAD beautifully read by Morgan Sullivan on opening night, will be spoken by Eli Nash himself for the remaining 2 performances)

**Performance Photos By, Frank Stewart

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