Review: Christine Ebersole and Billy Stritch Bring Audience To Their House With I'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS at 54 Below

Remember that cool couple who lived on your block, growing up?  And they always threw the best Christmas party every year?  Their house was decorated with groovy Christmas decorations, and they let you call them by their first names, and they played Christmas music by pop stars instead of stodgy church music.  The food was amazing, and they wore mod cocktail outfits, they were playful and elegant and never serious, and if they caught you sneaking a punch cup of the eggnog that had been spiked, they would wink at you instead of busting you.  Weren’t the cool couple the best neighbors to have during the holiday season?  Or maybe your parents were the cool couple of the neighborhood, and you were so jazzed that your folks were the couple everyone wanted to be with for the holidays.

Well, that couple is still around and they are still throwing the best Christmas party in town, and their names are Christine Ebersole and Billy Stritch.

Last night the award-winning duo (too many awards to list) opened their new show at 54 Below, appropriately titled I’LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS, and even though Broadway’s Living Room has been a home to Mr. Stritch many times, it was the twosome’s first time to play the room together - but it felt like that home from your youth, the one with the cool couple throwing the party.  First of all, the fine folks at 54 Below are the absolute best at making you feel like you are at home, and they do it 362 days a year (no shows on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day) and once the hospitality team has done their part and made you all comfy and cozy, Mr. and Mrs. Cool get to make their entrance, and it is off to the races.

Now, spoiler alert: this is going to be one of those reviews that avoids spoilers.  Christine Ebersole and Billy Stritch have a rhythm, they have a vibe, they have a thing, and they also have a week of shows, and it would be so rude of me to ruin it for the audiences to come.  Like, for instance, the hysterical Ebersole monologue about one Christmas when she was seven (take a hankie to wipe the tears away) - the comic timing cannot be bought, paid for, or rehearsed.  Or the general banter that jockeys back and forth between the decades-long friends and colleagues playing volleyball with quips and queries.  The evening is special just by virtue of the energy that they bring to the room, and that is before you even start to talk about the exemplary quality of the music (and is it still permissible to compliment a lady on being beautiful?  Because you’re going to want to hold your breath while looking at Christine Ebersole, easily one of the most beautiful women currently walking the earth).

So let’s talk about the musical quality to be found at I’LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS, shall we?

The program that Mister Stritch and Miss Ebersole are presenting is nightclub act-ery at its very best.  No mere evening of Christmas caroling is this, for Billy has provided Christine with jazz treatments of holiday classics that one might be shocked to hear a Broadway soprano performing.  Oh, yes, we’ve heard their albums, we’ve seen their shows, but it is still shocking when the Tony Award winner transitions from some authoritative Broadway Rodgers and Hammerstein (that she did NOT sing on the Great White Way #hint) to a jazz treatment of a Johnny Matthis Christmas song (#anotherhint).  It is genuinely mind-blowing.  It happens repeatedly throughout the program, thanks to Stritch’s careful guidance as a Musical Director who knows the depth and extent of his headliner’s abilities, and in the case of Christine Ebersole, the abilities are, quite literally, limitless; this evening is just one achievement in a long list that locked her in as a show business legend.  But don’t be fooled by the weight of the word.  Christine Ebersole is one of our greats.  She gets all the descriptives - legend, icon, diva… but she is a particular one: she is the Down To Earth Diva.  She has all of the talent, all of the charisma, all of the accomplishment, all of the gravitas... but remember - she is the cool neighbor.  For one hour and twenty minutes, Christine Ebersole amuses and amazes while being the most unassuming, unpretentious, relatable, accessible, and adorable hostess you could hope to have running your Christmas party or cabaret.  She is real, she is likable, and she is Hi-Ho-Larious, at every turn.  Anyone who didn’t love her, walking in the door, will love her, walking out.  And the fans of her work on Broadway will not be disappointed during this production.

Although the title of the show has the word Christmas in it, and although there is plenty of Christmas music, let it not be assumed that Ebersole and Stritch went all-out, full-on Elf on the Shelf.  Guests can expect some music from some of their earlier club work by way of one of their previous album titles (#bighint), and there is some Broadway belting by way of some Manhattan-themed Porgy And Bess (#reallybighint) but the evening tops out twice when Christine and Billy make medleys out of her Tony Wins.  To sit in a room and hear Christine Ebersole sing, live, these songs from her most famous theatrical roles is be given a gift, Christmas, Hanukkah, or otherwise, and it is a gift not to be taken for granted, and not to be forgotten, ever.  Keep the hankie handy for the Grey Gardens mash-up, for it packs an emotional wallop, and not just from the vocals, for this singing actress brings it all into the room, as though there were a bonafide Bouvier Beale standing at the mic.  At this writer’s table there was a simultaneous chorus of “WOWS" after the number.  There was a similar reaction to Christine Ebersole’s performance of “River,” the best since the original was released in 1971.  It has to be seen and heard to be believed, and it is, completely and totally alone, worth the price of admission.  From start to finish, the outing is one of the special ones, of this or any season, holiday, cabaret, or otherwise.

So, friends and neighbors, this is your invitation, and you don’t have to RSVP.  All you have to do to enjoy the best Christmas party in town is make a reservation, show up at 54 Below, and join the rest of the people screaming and cheering for the coolest couple in town - Christine Ebersole and Billy Stritch.  Even if you aren’t a Christian and don’t celebrate the holiday, these folks are the gift you want to give yourself this December.  

Christine Ebersole and Billy Stritch will play I’LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS through December 17th, most nights at 7 pm, but not exclusively, so check the 54 Below calendar HERE for complete information, dates, and times.

Billy and Christine are joined on stage by two amazing musicians - Michael O’Brien on Bass and Ray Marchica on Drums.  

Christine Ebersole With Billy Stritch: I’ll Be Home For Christmas is a Mark Cortale production.

Visit the Christine Ebersole website HERE and the Billy Stritch website HERE.

Photos by Stephen Mosher

 

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