Review: JENN COLELLA Back In The Basement With Broadway At 54 Below

Well, Jenn Colella’s at it again, and all seems right with the world… and in the basement.  The Tony Award nominated powerhouse is at 54 Below this week, having opened on the 17th to her usual packed house, but, at last night’s second performance, this reviewer is happy to report that the dining room of Broadway’s Living Room was, once again, at capacity; and therein lies one of the main thoughts I expressed to my date for the evening (a Colella concert first-timer), as we walked to the train after the show.

One of the major reasons, one of the special perks and purposes, of being in New York, of being a cabaret frequenter, of going to 54 Below is having the opportunity to see great Broadway stars sing, live and in person, the songs that they, themselves, introduced on Broadway.  Yes, this week’s run of shows is not one of La Colella’s rock shows, not one of her pop and disco parties, not one of her raucous nights of revelry.  This is Jenn Colella’s Broadway show, and although Jenn Colella may seem a might young for a retrospective show, the fact is that she has done six Broadway shows - six new shows in which she was originating roles.  It’s true that they weren’t all hits but let us not diminish the following of the flops.  Broadway devotees are always interested in talking about, remembering, and listening to stories about the shows with the short runs.  Oftentimes at 54 Below you can find the likes of Charles Kirsch and Robert Schneider putting on whole evenings of entertainment centered around Broadway’s redheaded stepchildren.  So when Jenn Colella plays her Broadway cabaret, people are getting the bumms in seats, luv, to hear “Mr. Hopalong Heartbreak” as much as they are to hear “Me and The Sky.”  They also want the stories, and that’s something at which Broadway’s Badass excels, for Jenn Colella is more than an exceptional actress and top tier vocalist - she is a wonderful storyteller.  It all just rolls off of her like an amazonian waterfall in the rainforest.  Seemingly effortlessly, Colella simply plants herself on the stage and lets it all flow… smoothly, subtly, and oh-so supremely.

Taking the crowd through her Broadway journey in a non-linear fashion, Colella tells the tale of her first meeting with Jason Robert Brown, including nicknames and the origin of certain words and phrases in her big number from Urban Cowboy, then she gets to her big moment in Come From Away, with a few loving words about Captain Beverley Bass, with whom she grew tight while portraying her in the play.  There are reminiscences regarding Tom Kitt, who has been a constant in Colella’s career (and whose work she seems to have been born to interpret) chief among them being the fantastic story behind her appearance in If/Then (the story is only compounded by Jenn’s performance of “Always Starting Over,” an evening highlight).  It’s a treat to hear the backstory behind High Fidelity’s “I’m Getting My Shit Together,” a great song that Colella need never cease to sing, and the story of Stephen Sondheim cheering on Richard Maltby Jr. delivered laughs before tears, thanks to “I’ve Been Here Before.”  It’s a seamlessly crafted career play that the singing actress is presenting, and the tangential nature of the story arc fits, to perfection, Colella’s aesthetic and performance style.  It also gives her ample opportunities to step out of the CV lane and make a few personal statements, in story and song.

Discussing her wish for inclusivity and making space for everyone in the room, whatever their personal demographic and believes, Our Lady of Positive Energy commented on the state of the world with “Everybody Says Don’t” and expressed her dream of peace (without commenting beforehand) with a spectacular performance of “Imagine,” and it has to be said: even though both of these songs have been sung, and sung to death, Jenn Colella has an innate ability to find fresh, new, personal ways of interpreting these lyrics that we all know.  It hardly seems possible, but she is able to mine nuance and meaning that hasn’t previously been expressed, hardly surprising, since she is a master of the musical monologue, a skill clearly informed by her training as an actress, but also by the depth of understanding she feels inside of her own self of the lyrics and the lyricists’ intent.  Whether working with these two specific compositions or any of the others during the seventy-five-minute presentation, the emotions on display are real, the tears are real, the laughs are real, and the speech pattern in the storytelling is real (this is a major thing to note, particular during the Maltby/Shire number).  It is more than a pleasure to watch the storyteller at work: it is a privilege.

Other highlights in Jenn Colella’s night of her musical theater roots included a little Shaina Taub (both from Suffs and not), some Carole King performed with bff Bobby Conte (by the way, we should all have a best friend that looks at us the way Jenn Colella looks at Bobby Conte), and two numbers that are pure Broadway, one from Funny Girl and one from Chaplin, which prove that Jenn Colella can sing anything, as evidenced by her Janis Joplin-originated encore, because, even though this is a Broadway night, what is a Jenn Colella show without some rock and roll?  And although we usually see Jenn with a full band and backup singers, her onstage companion for the night was simply Musical Director Chris Ranney, who makes the piano sound like a full band, anyway, but it did present the air of a right proper cabaret, having it just be the singer and the piano - nice and intimate, the way cabaret should be.  It’s hard to think of an evening with Jenn Colella being anything other than intimate, though, as she has a strong proficiency, a talent at connecting with her audience, and the spur-of-the-moment interactions with patrons around the room last night gave rise to repeated outbursts of laughter from the crowd, another one of the benefits of being a New Yorker attending shows of this nature in clubs like 54 Below.  Broadway stars like Jenn Colella and Lillias White (appearing at 54B next week) and Norbert Leo Butz (who was there last week) have followings, they have fans, they have a community of people who love them and come to the shows, people who know the upcoming song after two chords, people who sigh and clap and cheer in unison at a career reference, people who know that that’s Nikki M. James sitting in the back booth, and that’s Mo Mullen seated house right, who sees all of her wife’s cabaret shows.  And while you’re sitting in that room with all of those strangers, you’re not strangers - you’re the extended family of Jenn Colella, the people who show up for her, who appreciate her, who get her, and who support her artistry.  For that hour, you are all bonded by something special, something personal, something that you, as fellow New Yorkers and art aficionados, have the opportunity and honor to consume and absorb, any time you want to, just by leaving the house.  

Catch Jenn Colella tonight (March 19th) at 54 Below at 7 pm.  Ticket link HERE.  

THIS is the 54 Below homepage.

HERE is the Jenn Colella Instagram page. 

Photos by Stephen Mosher

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