Review: Jessica Fishenfeld Keeps The SUNNY SIDE UP Down In The Basement At The Birdland Theater

Heigh-Ho, My Merry Rainbow Tribe! Bobby Patrick your RAINBOW Reviewer here. Grabbing that silent T in cabareT to bring you all the Tea!

Thursday night’s trip to the Birdland Theater introduced your rainbow boy to Soprano (and America’s Got Talent aerialist?!) Jessica Fishenfeld in her brightnhappy cabaret - SUNNY SIDE UP. More than just how Bobby likes his eggs, Jessica’s show was, as the title would indicate, a real mood lifter. Her honey-blonde hair, shining face, superb soprano voice + expert timing, and a good old-fashioned setlist done up with new jazz arrangements by the fabulous Matthew Sheen (music director) combined to make the evening bright, for sure. Along with Sheen’s piano, Jessica’s musician trio was filled out by Sam Zerna on bass, and Peter Manheim on drums, and, together, they made a night filled with almost completely uptempo toe-tappers. Kicking off with I GOT RYTHM, mashed up with her title song SUNNY SIDE UP, the room was already off to a bright and bouncy start, and her additional lyrics about TikTok amused all. The greatest thing about Jessica is her finely trained voice. As a fully capable operatic soprano who has triumphed at the late, lamented, New York City Opera, as well as sung legit while dangling from her toes on AGT, one might think that her vocals would be too heavy or too “chicken-like” for jazz, but this was not so. She has folded her vocal production into a jazz sound quite nicely, and her range, training, and musicianship mean she has total control over her performance. She’s also adept at using her legit opera chops to comic effect, as with her rendition of Tom Lehrer’s POISONING PIGEONS IN THE PARK (hilarious) and The Sherman Brothers’ I LOVE TO LAUGH - stoooopid fun.

Fun, in fact, was JF’s mode throughout the evening, and while one might have thought that too much ice cream and cake would just be too much, her slightly dark take through her sunny delivery made it all palatable. Her new lyrics to an old fave brought forth gales of laughter on DING DONG YOUR BOYFRIEND’S GAY, and her performance of NIGHT AND DAY, as a paean to her love of sushi, was given, yet, another bouncy and fun arrangement that was a crowd pleaser. In fact, those two words “Bouncy & Fun” were jotted down in Bobby’s little notebook several times, and are a fine descriptor of Jessica’s entire show. She told cute stories about herself pre & post-pandemic from a well-written and rehearsed script that only occasionally came off that way. She related to, and joked with, her audience (many of them friends) and, overall, had (and MADE) a good time for the room - nothing serious was taken on or sung about, until halfway through, when she sang a jazz arranged version of Charlie Chaplin’s song SMILE, dedicated to a friend with cancer. That number aside, it was all meant to be good clean, CLEAN fun. The final highlight of the night was her finale - a medley of happy-making songs PUT ON A HAPPY FACE, GET HAPPY, WHISTLE A HAPPY TUNE, and two songs from the Monty Python canon - THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE, and THAT’S YOUR GRAIL. 

In all, Jessica’s ability to sing real jazz in a jazz soprano voice, and then switch it up to full-on opera (usually while being hilarious) was impressive and delightful.  There is one ding Bobby must deliver, bringing some raindrops with this rainbow review and adding a touch of critic to this critique - her encore of YOU’VE GOT A FRIEND, for which she invited her husband, opera singer Scott Joiner, to JOIN ‘ER onstage (see what Bobby did there?). Scott is a handsome, engaging performer with a fine voice, and for a moment their mix was mixing, but, in all, the number just seemed a bit underdone. It sounded, and felt, as though more rehearsal was needed to get them rowing in the same direction throughout OR Music Director Sheen should take another pass at the vocal arrangement, as things, to Bobby’s rainbow ears, seemed to diverge and not find resolution. We’re not mad at anybody here, because these things can happen to ANYBODY, but a little more time spent on anybody’s finale would not go amiss.  In all, Jessica Fishenfeld’s show kept her SUNNY SIDE UP and we give this sunny show a nice…

3 ½ Out Of 5 Rainbows

Jessica Has A Dot Com With All Her Socials: HERE

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