Review: Analise Scarpaci Premieres Dreamy Solo Show Debut PATHETIC LITTLE DREAMER at 54 Below

Analise Scarpaci may have just had a birthday but a little over a week ago, it was she who was doing the gift giving, when she presented, to a room full of devoted friends and family, her first-ever solo club act at 54 Below. The singing actress, late of MRS. DOUBTFIRE but currently heading to those famous hills that are alive with THE SOUND OF MUSIC, played Broadway's Living Room with a show titled PATHETIC LITTLE DREAMER, which is the name of her first album, an EP of songs that she wrote herself, and a doggone good album, at that. With both the album and the concert PATHETIC LITTLE DREAMER, Analise Scarpaci has taken a step into a broader future for herself, one that is going to require some balance.

Ms. Scarpaci is a musical theater actress of growing note, having garnered fans in the seats out front and friends in the industry, two groups of people that want to see her continued good success on the musical theater stage. Her musical theater talents were well on display on October 19th, as she performed famous show tunes she won't actually be able to sing, in character, for decades. Nevertheless, her "Adelaide's Lament" showed acting chops, comic timing, and commitment to character ... well, speaking factually, every song performed during the Pathetic Little Dreamer concert showed commitment to character - Scarpaci is not only dedicated to bringing the stories to life, but also the fictional people telling those stories. She also did a surprisingly astute job with the Sondheim classic "Someone Is Waiting" - surprising because no twenty-three year old should have the ability to tap into this lyric with so informed an attitude. But Analise Scarpaci did. The number was one of the highlights of the evening, if not THE highlight. It's hard to know, really, what the highlight was. Everything was so dangnab good.

Other than these two Broadway classics, a song from Doubtfire, and the Anne Boleyn number from SIX (which kind of doesn't feel like a Broadway song, so much as a number by a fierce concert diva), the rest of Scarpaci's program was either pop music by the Jonas Brothers, Adele, and Sarah Bareilles, or it was songs from the album Pathetic Little Dreamer, and this is where Scarpaci's need for future balance was showing. It was showing because Analise Scarpaci could be a pop music concert star, if she wanted. She has the goods. She has the goods for Broadway and she has the goods for the music industry. I'm not sure how many performers exist, or have existed, who have managed to walk the line between rock stardom and Broadway diva-dom, but Analise Scarpaci could do it. Sarah Bareilles has been doing a pretty good job of it these last few years, and Jeremy Jordan just launched his new rock band, so Scarpaci wouldn't be alone, and she would be in good company. But it will take balance, so she needs to start preparing for that. She is too good at both things to let one fade into the background.

When not actively engaged in the art of portraying Miss Adelaide or Bobbie or Anne Boleyn, Analise Scarpaci's stage time was spent showcasing one of the (truly) most remarkable voices a person could be exposed to,for one hour and fifteen minutes, not to mention some impressive stage presence. Like an amalgam of Liza Minnelli (come on, Pink sequin pantsuit!), Cher (you have to see her in action to fully get it), Bonnie Raitt (there were bona fide rock and roll vibes during "Seventh Stage of Grief"), and Tina Turner (Scarpaci eats, ferociously, every minute of her stage time), Analise is completely comfortable in her musical performances, a natural who appears like a wild animal released back into its earthly habitat. This is a performer who has such innate talent, such masterful training, and such genuine instinct as to be, at times, overwhelming and eye-opening. She is a joy and a thrill to watch, especially when performing her own compositions - good songs with proper lyrics and melodic lines. This was, indeed, an auspicious solo show debut.

But it wasn't perfect. I have notes. These are all notes that can be easily taken and improved upon, and they are all notes that often come with a solo show debut.

When I see a show at 54 Below, I am usually given a setlist - it contains the names of the songs, the composers, and the personnel of the show. It would be nice if every club did it, but, alas, 54 Below is (mostly and usually) the only one that does (though Green Room 42 tech director Sheridan Glover always shares his with me). On the Pathetic Little Dreamer setlist sheet, I can read the names of Analise's staff - her musicians Dan Hartington, Alan Stevens Hewitt, Tom Jorgensen, and Musical Director Michael J. Morris. I wouldn't know these names, were it not for this sheet, because Analise did not build into the act a moment when she could introduce these important and talented artists who support her - she ended up trying to scream their names and her other "Thank you's" over the deafening curtain call applause. A director would have helped Analise to script this moment into her show... and there is no director listed on the setlist that currently sits to the left of my keyboard. A director is essential to a cabaret, a concert, or a club act, and anyone who says they aren't is mistaken. Please note that Liza Minnelli and Chita Rivera always work from a script and with a director. Please note that Barbra Streisand and Norm Lewis always work from a script and with a director. Moving forward, Analise needs to work with a director - it is clear that she was working from a script because she went out on the stage looking resplendent in that hot pink suit, knowing what she wanted to say, knowing what her trajectory was, and knowing her brand (she also knew all her lyrics - there was nary a lyric sheet in sight, hooray!). But a director could have refined some transitions that were slightly clumsy, trimmed some talk that was superfluous, and advised against moments like an inappropriate joke about feeling old, ten days before turning twenty-three. That's just too precious. For most of her show, Analise leaned into authenticity - but when a twenty-three-year-old makes a crack about feeling old, not only is it precious, but it alienates anyone in the audience over the age of thirty-five, and nobody wants to alienate their audience.

Fortunately, there was no chance of Analise doing that because nearly everyone at 54 Below was a friend or family member, which Scarpaci established early in the evening with one of the best, most sincere moments of the night: she asked the crowd "Who here is family? Who here is a friend? Who here doesn't know me at all?" in order to establish that her sold-out house was sold-out because she has family and friends who love her enough to come into the city and put down the big bucks to see her solo show debut. It broke the ice, allowed her to make fun of herself a little, and let everyone know they were among friends. Audiences won't always be made up of family members who get the inside jokes or who want to look at home videos and AVR presentations on the monitor - this audience did, but it will be good for Analise to work out details like this with her director, when she gets one. As notes go, needing a director and saying your band's names so the audience can hear them is pretty basic. It isn't a critique, just a note that can only make Analise Scarpaci's budding concert career get better and better until she is, indeed, balancing Broadway and concert tours, like Sarah Bareilles, because that's where Scarpaci is headed, if she keeps writing, recording, and performing the way she did at her very noteworthy solo concert debut.

Analise Scarpaci is one to watch. So get on board and watch.

The PATHETIC LITTLE DREAMER band was Dan Hartington, Alan Stevens Hewitt, Tom Jorgensen and Musical Director Michael J. Mortiz.

Annalise Scarpaci invited guests artists Renée Reid and Mitchell Sink to join her for some numbers.

Find great shows to see on the 54 Below website HERE.

THIS is the Analise Scarpaci website.

Photos by Stephen Mosher; Visit the Stephen Mosher website HERE.

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