Review: Lee Roy Reams UNCENSORED! FOR ADULTS ONLY! at 54 Below Not For The Faint At Heart

There are a few surefire ways to have a hit cabaret show.  The first is to have an immediately identifiable name above the title.  The second is to have a widely admired and respected artist in the spotlight.  The third is to have a title that nobody could ever, possibly, resist.  The secret weapon with which to seal the deal is a lethal and magical combination of absolute honesty and total authenticity.  When Lee Roy Reams announced his new show at 54 Below, he pretty much guaranteed himself a cast iron hit.

And, boy, did this hit land.

Titled UNCENSORED!  FOR ADULTS ONLY!, this new outing for Lee Roy is quintessential Reams.  For years the Tony Award nominee has entertained as himself on the nightclub stage and in social settings where people could get a glimpse at the man behind the actor.  With roles like Lumiere and ZaZa, like Duane Fox and Roger de Bris on his CV, Lee Roy Reams has had plenty of opportunities for flamboyance on the stage.  But that was in character.  Off the stage, Lee Roy Reams IS the character.  And he got that way by always being lucky enough to know who he is and how he wants to be.  This self-knowledge has shown itself off, and beautifully, in all of his club acts over the years (Mr. Reams famously has no filter) but when the fans and when the members of his own show business community learned that he was going to be UNCENSORED!, there was simply no choice: miss this show at one’s own peril.

For his July 26th performance at 54 Below, Lee Roy Reams delivered that which he had promised.  All bets were off as he recounted the tales from his childhood, his adulthood, his actor life, his family life, his sex life, and his life among the celebrated artists that he has called both colleague and comrade.   And for one hour and forty minutes, Lee Roy Reams kept his packed-to-the-rafters audience firmly in the palm of his hands, sometimes smiling, sometimes crying, always poised and ready to laugh but more likely to howl, and never, not for a moment, was anyone’s attention anywhere other than laser-focused upon Lee Roy Reams.  There were more gay gasps than at a Magic Mike movie and more blushing faces than at a Mario Cantone show.  The rhetoric, while always respectfully pronounced, was most definitely Not Safe For Work, but it was most certainly authentic to the man that everyone knows and loves, the man everyone always wants to see ply his craft.  And there is craft being applied with this musical memoir, make no mistake about it.

Although his more regular cabaret outing, a tribute show to close friend Jerry Herman, is a memoir show, it is a niche memoir.  Uncensored! is an all-encompassing memoir about Lee Roy Reams.  And when a person, public figure or otherwise, decides to tell their story, the storytelling must be done in a way that suits their aesthetic.  Lee Roy Reams might sit down and write a book version of his memoirs, and it might be a very good book version of his memoirs, but Lee Roy Reams is an orator.  Lee Roy Reams is an entertainer.  It is only fitting that his memoir be told in the manner that best suits his style.  This is that memoir.  This is a storytelling show… with music.  There is an entire segment of Uncensored! that harkens back to the play 1776 - some twenty or so minutes pass without a song, and that is fine, it is just fine because the storytelling is so very exquisite.  If Lee Roy Reams is speaking extemporaneously, it’s a miracle because there was every indication, from the seats out front, that Uncensored! has been drafted, outlined, written, re-written, and finessed as a proper play with an arc, with the rise and fall of storytelling rhythms, with laugh lines and cry creations built into the script.  If the text was written out, it was done so with pure stagecraft, but if it is off the cuff, it works because Lee Roy Reams has the natural gift of gab - perfect, precise, and en pointe, at every moment.

Observe (when the show encores, which it must, without question) how Lee Roy repeatedly circles back around to a close personal friendship from his school days, in order to illustrate his own journey in life.  Note how Reams casually tosses out jovial anecdotes about relationships that resurface later as touching tales of a life lived.  Enjoy the vulnerability with which he opens himself, his heart, his arms, in order to demonstrate the love that he has had in his life - love from dear friends, like a surprisingly saucy Juliet Prowse, from devoted family members, like his refreshingly candid mother, and from his lifelong inamorato, his late husband, Bob Donahue.  And revel in every single moment when that open, beating, vulnerable heart allows us the honor of seeing Lee Roy Reams at his truest form, whether cracking wise with friends and audience members Len Cariou and Brandon Maggart about very personal reminiscences or sitting stock still on a stool, weeping over the tragic beauty of a life lived to the fullest.  In print, the winks, and the nudges, and the tears, and the smiles would all be in our imaginations but with Lee Roy Reams telling his story live, we get all of him, we get all of this master storyteller and impeccable entertainer, and that is as it should be.  

Musically speaking, Uncensored! is beyond reproach.  A gentleman of silver locks and decades of experience, Lee Roy Reams retains the Broadway belt for which he is well-known, and although there is no terpsichore of the feet, the hands and the hips do dance about the room with all the theatricality required for songs from Goldilocks (come on, now!) and La Cage Aux Folles, a naughty little ditty by Mr. Berlin or a devastating ballad from Mr. Sondheim.  There are vocals, right and proper, melded with acting skills and natural emotions accessed in real time before our very eyes.  Whether having fun with an up-tempo or serving serious with a ballad, Reams has punctuated his oration with songs populating properly the tales being told.  Backed by brilliant Musical Director and arranger Alex Rybeck, Reams managed every number with both ease and proficiency, but the two bolt-from-the-blue surprises of the evening were pop songs originated by Dionne Warwick and Bread.  Nobody could have ever thought that “We’re In The Money” and “Put On Your Sunday Clothes” could have prepared this Broadway Boy for performances of hit songs from the Top 40, but, then, nobody can ever predict Lee Roy Reams.  These two numbers showed the octogenarian at his storytelling best, inspiring extended ovations from an audience not content to stop yelling or applauding.  And he earned that applause, for a Lee Roy Reams story, uncensored or otherwise, is what we’re living for.  

May the heavens bless us with more stories and more performances of Uncensored!  For Adults Only!  

Find other great shows to see on the 54 Below website HERE.

Lee Roy Reams is on Facebook HERE.

Photos by Stephen Mosher

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