Review: Mr. Jones Has Had It & Is Giving Notice In BEN JONES: I THINK WE SHOULD SEE OTHER PEOPLE At 54 Below

Heigh-Ho, My Merry Rainbow readers! Bobby Patrick, your RAINBOW Reviewer here. Putting the silent T in cabareT to bring you ALL the Tea!

Ohhhh dear Bobby readers! Thursday night's 9:30 show at 54 Below was the return of SUPER TENOR Ben Jones. While Bobby caught a tiny bit of Mr. Jones' act for the first time at the Jamie deRoy & Friends most recent installment at Birdland - and we were mightily impressed - those two numbers in a group show did not prepare us for what our sensitive little ears would hear on this night. Starting his show off with an explanation of what the audience was about to experience, the first 3 things you notice about Ben Jones are his eyes and his face - he's handsome as the devil. The next thing you notice is he's funny... no, really funny... stand-up comedy funny but in the weirdest way. In his very calm, almost somnambulic (what? Bobby knows words?!) speaking voice, he so very gently invited the house to join him on a journey of NOT love songs. You see, after his last show LOVE SONGS, I THINK WE SHOULD SEE OTHER PEOPLE is a set of breakup songs - all those aftermath, devastation, I'm-so-mad, so sad, so bad-and-blue cuz I've lost my love... songs. But what Ben Jones has put together is more than a "set", it is an ACT that combines his prodigious talents of singing AND talking to his audience into nightclub entertainment par excellence. The true measure of this act's greatness lies in the fact that it stands up as a superb stand-up OR music set. Jones could jettison the songs and still have a solid 30 minutes of comedy and vice/reversa. If he just stood there and sang, well that would make a pretty awesome evening too.

To describe this man's voice as soaring is to fall unpardonably short. Birds soar, but Jone's vocals are a jet fighter blasting through the air, breaking the sound barrier with total power under his complete control. His training, his musicality, interpretation, and intonation, whether full-throated or softly whispering, all fill the entire room with his dynamism. In short, you've never heard a voice like this or been made to laugh by a singer quite this much. His comedy martini is so dry with an almost undetectable vermouth of bitter irony. In a self-consciously soft and subtle tone laced with purposeful hints of a lounge-lizardy-style smarm that smacked of "Hey, you all know... " and "Hey, we've all been there ammIright?" his subversive setups and stories between numbers landed with both feet on our heads with their punch lines. Even the great Ron Abel, his legendary music director/arranger, could not control his own laughter at times and we were left to wonder... "Didn't you rehearse together, Ron? Don't you know this stuff already?" but it was all so hilarious. Abel was also un-Abel (see what Bobby did there?) to contain his admiration for his singer's song interpretations, stopping to give Mr. Jones applause from behind the keyboard a couple of times... And let Bobby tell those who don't know, if you impress Ron Abel, you've really done something because he is the best in the biz. Mixing their chemistry perfectly, following his star, ready to catch him at a drop of a lyric or to give a nudge in the right direction for the next song, the two made meals out of each little goof and gaffe.

Highlights from Ben's song list include... well, quite frankly, my lambs, they were ALL highlights, but his run of a half dozen "obsession" songs: A CASE OF YOU, the hilarious SENSITIVE SONG, I WANNA BE AROUND, KILLING TIME, his WITH EVERY BREATH/LOSING MY MIND mash-up (took Bobby's breath and made us lose our mind), and I NEVER THOUGHT I'D BREAK all added together into the perfect crescendo, leading to his finale YOU'LL BE BACK. During his inevitable encore, HOPELESSLY DEVOTED TO YOU, there was a small lyric bump in his road that prompted the audience to join in since, as he said, "You all know this song right?" In short, we do not understand why Ben Jones is not in ALL the Broadway shows. Now, we know that producers have long since dropped the practice of discovering stars, after truly searching for real talent, that they then tailor shows for, giving them the launching pad their skills deserve, favoring instead the hiring of sure-thing-stars that will sell tickets. That is the economics of Broadway now, but this season has dropped the spot on Julie Benko, who rescued the first-ever revival of FUNNY GIRL from early death, and the slightly smaller cabaret light has found Ben Jones, and these two talents are the finds of the century. Casting agents and producers alike would be well advised to go with Mr. Jones for all their tenor needs, for not since Jeremy Jordan has Bobby been this excited about a performer. He can sing, he can act, he can make us all laugh, and then there is THAT FACE... which alone fully deserves Bobby's...

5 Out Of 5 Rainbows

So ends this love letter to Ben Jones, but you can catch up on his WebbySite: HERE

Tweet Him Right On His Twitters: HERE

Stalk His InstaPictograms: HERE

Ande Followe On Ye Olde FaceBooke: HERE

All Photos By Yours Truly, Bobby Patrick

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