Review: 54 SINGS BROADWAY'S GREATEST HITS! at 54 Below

This long running series at 54 Below, in its 110th show, throws back both to Broadway of old and the best moments of its host venue. Some of the absolute best experiences, here, come from shows like this, where some performers run across the city, after acting on a stage elsewhere, to sing their heart out, once again, for the 54 Below audience, while others go all-out for a song or two as the variety of talent and their songs. The awards won by the performers ranged, as far as the song selection, and, from the first voice to hit the stage, the audience was spellbound by what could possibly follow up such an excellent operatic rendition of “One Alone” from the long-ago Broadway hit The Desert Song, by four-time Grammy award winner, John Easterlin. Partial to the opera myself, Easterlin’s voice and emotional touch were not only exquisite, but left a lasting impression. The line “this would be a magic world to me if she were mine,” sung by his expressive tenor, showed why this once upon a time 1920’s hit show was more than just an early example of America’s obsession with desert survival.

As the songs neared the modern day, each performer and each performance brought a different and similarly impressive rendition of their selection to a captivated audience. Masterminding the turns through Broadway’s history was narrator Scott Siegel, who, along with music director, Ron Abel, provided the perfect balance at each corner of the stage, between spoken word and wordless piano, to allow these performers to truly shine. Between each number, Siegel gave a little bit of history of the song such, as to where it came from, perhaps how it was developed into the lyrics and melody that it is today, or where the journey of time has taken it since. For example, he pointed out that the hit from Carousel, “You’ll Never Walk Alone” has had many second lives, including that of the Liverpool fight song. Performing this for the group was Ben Jones, who brought out the song’s intensity in a roaring crescendo where the combination of his acting and powerful voice amplified lines like “when you walk through the storm, keep your head held high and don’t be afraid of the dark.”

Most performers on the evening performed at least two songs with both Easterlin and Jones following up their incredible early performances with equally stunning renditions of “Why Can’t I Walk Away” and the anthem of anthems, “The Impossible Dream,” respectively. However, another performer, equally worthy of high praise, who happened to perform a thrilling version of “Anthem” from Chess was Ryan Knowles. His Les Misérables’s “Master of the House” was a sheer “firecracker” of a good time, launching the audience into a unanimous clap along, as he brought out every inch of the song's flavor, complete with a mustache he meticulously stroked on lines like, “Everybody loves a landlord.” It’s easy to repeat that performances like Knowles, who was at City Center earlier on the day, are what make a show like this, at 54 Below, so incredible. It was both haunting, chilling, and awe-inspiring in the way that he invited us to rent a room, even mocking the weight of the travelers’ bags, “Glad to do my friends a favor, it doesn’t cost anything to be nice.”

Another performance that brought instant chills running up one’s spine was by MOIPEI, a trio of starlets from Kenya, who combined to perform “My Shot” from Hamilton and “Anything Goes” from Anything Goes. They brought a slightly different twist to both of these Broadway hits. For “Anything Goes,” it was part classic girl group trio, taking turns singing their lines wistfully, while serenading the audience members, but they were hardly stuck in place. They played off of each other, as if singing the lines were a conversation from one to another. This thread of turning the song into part performance act carried through their memorable rendition of “My Shot,” where the lyrics always seem to cross the lines between the performer’s desires, the character’s desires, and that of the audience, who all agree that “I’m not going to throw away my shot.” To see more of this talented group, they have their own show coming up, Monday, July 10th, where they're sure to, similarly, show off their skills. See 54 Below’s link here.

Another performer to have an upcoming show this July is Stella Katherine Cole in her show “Cole Has Standards.” Similar to MOIPEI, she had a pair of Broadway ‘standards’ which I’m sure, in some ways, is the pun of her upcoming show. My favorite of her two was a gut wrenchingly emotional performance of “Being Alive,” the only Sondheim number to be performed on the evening. A song that, before it had seen edits, was considered “completely devastating to a live audience,” Cole made it feel both hopeful and iconic-ly desperate for the pains of sharing one’s life with another. It was much different than the completely upbeat turns of phrase in “On the Sunnyside of the Street,” by Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields, where Cole danced alongside tapper, Kendrick Jones. You can find Cole’s show here.

Kendrick Jones was unique in a couple of ways as he split the singers with his own dance number of “My Favorite Things” from The Sound of Music. Wordlessly, he danced to the number, tapping out the lines of the song and pausing where a singer would have stopped. Secondly, aided by the large, smooth stage of 54 Below, he added numerous slides and similarly modern movements to the classic tap. His silver shoes, catching the light as he, daringly, caught himself near either edge of the stage.

The last two performers to join the stage for the evening were in some ways different and some ways the same. Alex Getlin and Ayla Gittleman Ipek split three emotion-filled love songs between them, with Gettlin joined by Ben Jones for one of the numbers. However, it was Gettlin’s performance of “Always” that allowed her to share a simple but effective touch to her performance. Almost like a blues singer, she dared to add a touch of variation on the deepest of lines, catching the ear and twisting it to listen, as if she were truly singing from the depths of her heart, making one believe, and not believe, the words “now that my blue days are gone.” Ipek may have made her 54 Below debut on the night, in good company, and fit in well. While a little more classic of a performance, the crispness, depth, and range of her vocals made her performance of “Back to Before” from Ragtime a pleasure. “There was a time our happiness seemed neverending” reminds one of so many moments in life when the reality of what comes up must come down comes to pass, as time passes and seasons change. It felt as if she had lived those very same words, though she was introduced as an underclassman at University.

Siegel’s eye for talent and ability to parse out an interesting bit on each song have made him a regular at 54 Below, and other venues throughout the city. Besides this fantastic series at 54, his “Broadway by the Year” shows at the Town Hall were iconic, and he’s picked up where he left off with a new series, “Broadway by the Season” at Merkin Hall, which promises to, similarly, recall the many twists and turns of this iconic art form filled with such moving music about love and life. See here.

Additionally, he’ll be back at 54 Below with more than just this, bringing a new show, “The Next Generation” to 54 Below on August 16th and 17th. If his finds are similarly talented to the young, Ipek, this show promises to be a treat. See here.

 

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