Review: Leslie Uggams ONLY IN NEW YORK Makes 54 Below The Place To Be This Week

The great Leslie Uggams opened last night at 54 Below in her show ONLY IN NEW YORK - one of the most entertaining and enjoyable shows to play a nightclub this year or any other. So sayeth this writer but, also, so sayeth the audience that gave the Tony Award recipient four mid-show standing ovations. This is the show that is not to be missed and, dear reader, if you ever trusted me before, trust me now and follow THIS link to get tickets and catch one of the remaining performances. The show plays tonight and tomorrow (November 11 and 12) at 7 pm, and it is essential cabaret and concert viewing for fans of the art form, of The Broadway, or (apparently) today's science fiction scene.

It has been said people who get better with age are like a fine wine, that they have aged like a great vintage. That is all well and good, but that cannot be said about Leslie Uggams. It cannot be said about Leslie Uggams because, were she to be compared to a liquor, a luxury, or a lovely treat, Leslie Uggams would not be a wine. Leslie Uggams would be a cognac: smooth, sleek, and oh-so-cool. Indeed, Leslie Uggams is the coolest person in show business right now, and it shows in every moment of Only In New York, from the slow groove of her walk from the 54 Below kitchen onto the stage to the up-front manner with which she tells her truth to her audience. From the time that she takes when telling stories to the control she commands when raising her voice in song every move made, every emotion displayed, and every moment played by Leslie Uggams is the hippest, fiercest, grooviest stuff of dreams to land on a nightclub stage today. It is to be seen, it is to be believed, and it is to be loved.

This program, Ms. Uggams explains, is her tribute to life, to New York, and to being out of the house with other people. For seventy-five heavenly minutes, the Lady doesn't just sing to us, she needs to sing to us. It's like breathing for her, and the bliss shows in her entire being as she revisits the songs she has made famous and tries out some new material like a Latin Jazz infused number from West Side Story or a Rodgers and Hammerstein ballad spiced up in a treatment that is only Uggams & Drums. Leslie Uggams isn't just singing songs she performed on Broadway, she is using them to tell the stories from her life, stories that involve Jule Styne and Jerry Herman, Carol Channing and Lena Horne, and always in ways that seem to originate from that special Uggams place, deep within her soul, whether working with an arrangement that strays not from the original, or a treatment that reinvents the rote. In Ms. Uggams' voice and emotive prowess, every facet of this show is as it was happening for the first time.

But it can't be happening for the first time because we all know this stuff.

Dare to try to hold back the tears as Leslie Uggams performs her two most famous songs from Hallelujah Baby! or the tune that, once, belonged to Angela Lansbury and Eydie Gorme but that she made into one of her own signature songs. This is history happening, before our very eyes - the moments of Broadway that we missed or that we dreamed of seeing once more, and they are as powerful today as they were, then, maybe even more so, today. There is belting, there is blues, there is jazz, there is Broadway... there is even Ben Platt, by way of a spectacular "Evan Hansen" duet between Leslie Uggams and her best friend, daughter Danielle Chambers. The memories are marvelous, the humanity is honest, and there is a bona fide stand-up comedy set centered around THE ORIGINAL Viral Video (pre-internet) and a poetry reading. This is everything a person hopes for when walking in the door of a cabaret nightclub, and just when you think you've seen and heard it all, Leslie Uggams tears it all down with a medley of songs centered around the word Yesterday.

Only In New York is simply the show to see this week, this month, this year, and it should surprise no one that it came from the creative genius that is Legendary Leslie Uggams.

The Leslie Uggams band is Buddy Williams on drums, George Farmer on bass, Don Rebic Musical Directing from the piano. Michael Bush is in the Director's Chair while Danielle Chambers acts as Special Guest Star.

See Leslie Uggams November 11th and 12th at 7 pm at 54 Below. Reservations can be made HERE.

Visit the Leslie Uggams website HERE.

Photos by Stephen Mosher; Visit the Stephen Mosher website HERE.

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