Review: Heather Headley Beautifully Bewitching at 92NY
An Afternoon With Heather Headley one for the record books.
There is this thing that Heather Headley does with her fingers when she is singing. She raises her hand (or hands) into the air and flutters her fingers, almost as though she is playing an invisible harp to accompany herself while telling her musical tales. There is a kind of eloquence to the movement, a dance-like quality with a mystical mood to it, rather like she is a sorceress casting a spell over her audience, the willing subjects of her bewitching abilities. In fact, that is what is happening any time that the Tony Award winning actress appears in concert, and it is what happened on November 24th, when the 92nd Street Y, New York presented AN AFTERNOON WITH Heather Headley. For nearly ninety minutes the Grammy winning singer held captive her audience, not only with her prodigious skills as a singer but with her infectious abilities as an orator. Yes, Heather The Heavenly most definitely had the theater full of fans under her spell, and it is doubtful that anyone present on the day ever wants the spell to be broken.
As plainly and easily as a PTA mom would do so, Heather Headley strode out onto the 92NY stage in a chic, floor-length day gown of vibrant blue-greens and peachy pinks nestled into charcoal black, her pretty pointy heels giving her already statuesque frame greater height, and stepped up to the microphone. No grand announcement was made, neither pomp nor circumstance were in the room, no frills accompanied the down-to-earth lady who frequently remarked on her gratitude for her gifts in life. Heather Headley simply was. She simply is. And we are all the luckier that she is existing in our time and in our sightline. The star of Sweet Magnolias stood center stage and launched into an acapella version of “Over the Rainbow” that had the crowd holding its collective breath until, eventually, Maestro Jason Webb joined her on the piano and, together, they opened their concert with style and substance, flair and fabulosity, the way a concert with a great talent should begin.
For her afternoon at the Y, Ms. Headley explained, she was going to do “whatever she wanted” which was what she had been informed, by the good folks at 92NY, she would be allowed to do. For that reason, Ms. Headley outlined, she intended to sing songs she had never sung before, songs she would not be able to sing on Broadway, and songs that she had previously explored. Singing these songs, the lady informed, was like trying on dresses, and she hoped we, her audience, would let her know which dresses looked good on her, and which did not. Well, surprise, surprise, Heather Headley looks good in every dress. There is nothing Heather can’t sing, and nothing she can’t make sound fresh and new. Her arrangements are as original as she is and her storytelling, unparalleled. This actress with a song in her heart uses that song as an independent moment of storytelling as, from independent moment to independent moment, she takes her audience on a journey through every experience and every emotion imaginable. Whether working off of Bob Dylan (“To Make You Feel My Love) or Elton John (“Your Song”), Ms. Headley approached her material from places so personal that one might feel like they were intruding on a private moment of reflection. Each of these private moments was bridged by the most entertaining rhetoric you could ever hope to hear in a concert. Whether discussing the difficult decision of whether or not to sing when the Kennedy Center honored Sir Elton or mapping out the madness of motherhood and getting all the kids to school on time, Heather Headley is just herself - sassy, silly, and sitting in all of her authenticity. It would not be challenge to sit in a concert hall and listen to Headley merely talk without singing a note - that is how engaging a public speaker she is.
But, trust me, you WANT her to sing a note.
Inarguably one of the greatest singers of this or any other generation, Heather Headley is a thrill-a-minute performer. She can find nuances and new experiences in songs you’ve heard a million times before, like “Maria” from West Side Story or “Look to the Rainbow” from Finian’s Rainbow. She can break your heart with the tenderest of tunes, like evening highlights “My House” from Matilda or “Bring Him Home” from Les Miserables, and immediately after, have you laughing once more, as she strikes a playful pose and exaggerates an emotional expression. She is here to tell the stories and she is having the time of her life doing so, and that joy of her own artistry feeds that artistry. It translates out to an audience that cannot get enough of her. Screaming and cheering, the crowd would not let her leave the stage until she explained that, “They’re throwing me out” because it was a Sunday and people had to get to their homes and holiday lives. Like the old legend of Judy Garland saying, “We’ll stay all night and sing ‘em all,” the audience full of people calling out to Heather from their seats would have, happily, given up their entire day to have the concert continue. One suspects she would have stayed, too, but that would have been an embarrassment of riches, so she gave the crowd three choices for her encore, and, naturally enough, there was pandemonium when the third option was “She Used to Be Mine.” The performance that followed was one for the record books, a performance you never forget having witnessed.
Other highlights in the program were a magnificent “Girl Crush” and an opera composition titled “Witness” performed as a true purveyor of opera would - in full soprano, sans mic, to electrifying perfection. There was, in fact, not a wrong gloden shoe-clad foot placed for the entire performance, the ultimate highlight of which was hearing the original Aida sing “Elaborate Lives” one more time. If the sniffling around the auditorium was any indication, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. That is as it is should be when witnessing one of the great entertainers engaged in their craft. It should be all emotion, all the time, and that is what Heather Headley gave her audience on November 24th. It is, without doubt, what she gives her audience every single time she is engaged in the act of musical storytelling by way of a concert, and those unlucky people who have not witnessed Heather Headley in concert should seek out every opportunity to correct that. Thank goodness 92NY had the vision and the smarts to invite this one and only talent to be a part of their season. It is this writer’s Christmas wish that we all might get more Heather Headley concerts in the future. May the spell she casts on all never be broken.
Find great shows to see on the 92NY website HERE.
Heather Headley has an Instagram page HERE.
Photos by Richard Termine provided by 92NY
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