Review: Kevin Chamberlin And Audience Were FINDING THE JOY at The Green Room 42

Kevin Chamberlin is a star.  Kevin Chamberlin is also a jobbing actor.  He goes out in search of the work and he finds it, whether it is on the stage, on screens large or small, or even on screens people hold in their hands.  He has had the success and he has had setbacks, and he has built up the stories.  Now, Kevin Chamberlin is telling those stories on a new kind of stage and becoming a new kind of star.  Kevin Chamberlin is a star and a storyteller in the field of cabaret and concert.

After presenting his show FINDING THE JOY on the West Coast, the three-time Tony Award nominee brought this first-ever club act to the city where it all began for him, making his New York City solo show debut at The Green Room 42 in back-to-back performances on November 24th and 25th.  This reviewer and Chamberlin fan was asked to step in for an ailing fellow BroadwayWorld Cabaret correspondent but was unavailable on Mr. Chamberlin’s opening night; it didn’t matter, though, because the electricity and excitement still hung in the air, as he made an unassuming and affable approach to the stage and stood, smiling, at the sold-out house on the eve of his second performance.  Years of experience as an actor and a person in the public eye had the gentleman well prepared for this moment (and, let us not forget, those sold-out runs of JOY that played LA), and it showed.  His ease on the nightclub stage was visible before he even opened his mouth to sing one song, to tell one story, to land one laughline.  As a nightclub performer, the gentleman is, most definitely, in his element.  

Opening his show with a medley of songs about being happy, Kevin Chamberlin had a good, solid start to his club act, displaying a wealth of authority and confidence in himself, his script, his band, and his audience.  The crowd was with him for all eighty minutes of his act, an act that never led one to check one’s watch - that’s how good he is at this art form, that’s how natural a storyteller he is.  And trust that he has stories to tell.  With four decades of show business twists and turns (and ten Broadway shows) making up the threads of his tapestry, Kevin Chamberlin has a lot to say.  His husband, Michael Gans, who has a co-author credit on the piece, as well as one as director, has assisted Kevin mightily in his efforts: the structure of the show is pretty well seamless, and Kevin’s performance without reproach.  This club act aficionado has no notes, not one.  Finding The Joy is a perfect night of Kevin Chamberlin cabaret because it is completely authentic to Kevin Chamberlin himself.  That’s where good club and cabaret entertainment begins: authenticity.  Kevin Chamberlin is a unique (and uniquely varied) talent.  Rather like an old-school vaudevillian, he presents a kind of variety show, here, with stories told, songs sung, and comedy bits (a recurring dad joke skit is precious in the best way): Chamberlin is using all the parts of himself.  He even sings songs that he, himself, had a hand in writing and, no surprise, the songs are good.  Throughout his joyful variety show, Mr. Chamberlin discusses his hits, from the now iconic Seussical to the Disney TV show Jessie, shares the stories of the flops (like My Favorite Year) and the famous (like Usher, with whom he appeared in Chicago on Broadway), and he even gets a little personal, talking about the experience of being a young gay man searching for his tribe in a city filled with hairless muscle boys, only to discover the members of the bear community, where he found acceptance and family.  With wide eyes and tongue in cheek, the gentleman offers up the stories of working with childhood idol Mary Tyler Moore, encounters with Andrew Lloyd Webber and Johnny Cash, and how he became a TikTok celebrity and a spokesperson for a West Coast grocery store chain, complete with his own jingle to sing, a jingle he, himself, wrote with his TikTok collaborator Sam Kite, fulfilling a lifelong dream.  Finding The Joy was, thanks to all of the elements provided by Chamberlin, Gans, and Musical Directing marvel Michael Orland, a genuinely joyful experience… but the greatest element used in creating that joy was the acting abilities possessed by Kevin Chamberlin.

Many a performer has gotten up on a stage and sung a song.  Many an actor has gone to class to learn to sing.  But without the acting skills required to put across a story being told, those people are performers, not storytellers.  There, on the stage of The Green Room 42, Kevin Chamberlin brought Mr. Cellophane to life, in all his invisible heartbreak.  There, luminous Janine LaManna by his side, Horton noticed Gertrude McFuzz one more time, mere minutes after Horton and JoJo (sensational guest artist Kai Edgar of ELF) soared, Alone In The Universe, as our hearts soared with them.   There, a member of the audience acting as theater technician, Uncle Fester fell in love with the moon before an all-new crowd of wonderous witnesses.  And in an incredibly special (and hilarious) segment, high schooler Kevin Chamberlin resurfaced (aided by some celebrated guests pulled from the audience) to relive his drama club moment of glory as The Cowardly Lion (by way of a spot-on Bert Lahr impression).    And to bring it all home, Kevin presented a touching medley of Disney-themed songs that harkened back to his youth while paying tribute to one of the biggest elements of his acting aesthetic: the kid who lives inside of him that informs his artistry.  After all of the stories and characters presented during the program, Kevin Chamberlin brought it all home with the most lovable character of all: Kevin Chamberlin.  All those years of stage and life experience that Kevin Chamberlin has amassed acts as fodder for this sublimely satisfying evening of nightclub theater, making Finding The Joy more than one of the happiest solo show debuts in town: it’s one of the most important.

---

Find other great shows to see on the Green Room 42 website HERE.

Find Kevin Chamberlin online on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.

Photos by Stephen Mosher

 

To post a comment, you must register and login.