Review: NEW YORK STATE OF MIND Is a State of Bliss with the Callaways at 54 Below

In a shows running nightly at 54 Below now through Saturday November 30, including the evening of Thanksgiving, sisters Ann Hampton Callaway and Liz Callaway are in a nostalgic mood. (The November 30th show will also be livestreamed.) Their audience-pleasing act, titled New York State of Mind, offers their recollections about their times in the NYC area, including a few years living on Long Island as kids as well as moving to Manhattan (from Chicago) in very early adulthood to seek performing work. Ann talked about her jobs singing and accompanying herself in piano bars until 2 o'clock in the morning and making friends (song cue for emotionally rich solos of “Old Friend” from I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking It on the Road, with the resonant line “We’ll sit in a bar and talk ‘til 2 about life and love as old friends do”) and “My Buddy.” Liz chatted self-deprecatingly about mixing up customers’ orders and thus having mixed success as a singing waitress, but that experience included her first opportunity to sing the Stephen Schwartz story-song “Meadowlark” which has been a beloved regular part of her repertoire ever since.  Her solos on that and “I’ll Be Here” (from the musical Ordinary Days by Adam Gwon, written for a character who loses someone on 9/11) brought rewardingly involving drama. 

Their duet of the haunting “That’s the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be” was powerful, too, but most of the siblings’ duets, contrastingly, were much more and upbeat.  They were mad for musical mega-medleys, with two main mix-’em-ups themed to the topics of togetherness, pop hits of the late 1960s, and the joys of New York City.  (Yes, that one prominently featured the Billy Joel-penned title piece of their New York State of Mind act and a couple of other peppy “usual suspects” employed for praising the Big Apple.) In less qualified hands, much of such swirls of ever-switching songs and uber-cheery chumminess could be cheesy, typical of the forced spunk intended to warm up and perk up an audience attending a lounge act with an early-bird dinner special.  But their soaring, clear voices, sublime vocal harmonies, and creative arrangements miles away from being karaoke-adjacent let these sections avoid sinking into tacky territory and gleefully glib globs of overly familiar oldies.  The patter was often amusing or touching, but risked sounding too scripted when they were trying to be casual, pretending comments just popped into their heads, along the lines of “Do you remember when we…?” But some remarks landed well, such as descriptions of their opposite tastes growing up in differently decorated bedrooms (Liz’s nightstand holding her books about teen detective Nancy Drew, while Ann’s bedside book was The Collective Poems of Sylvia Plath).

It’s always a pleasure to see and hear the sublime-voiced sisters, whose solo and duo acts and recordings are reliably radiant.  (I’ve been a satisfied customer for many years.)  Let me further spell out some of the pluses of this program – spelling it all out in a way that also spells C-A-L-L-A-W-A-Y:

“C” is for “Cloudburst,” the frisky, fleet, ambitious jazz specialty they nailed, making it a highlight in a different style than the rest.

“A” is for Ann’s original songs among the standards (she cutely calls them “Ann-dards”); a very early one called “Remind Me” was a touching duet.

“L” is for Liz’s LOL lighthearted comments along the way

“L” is for lovely, lush harmonies that enrich the show.

“A” is for Alex Rybeck’s A+ assets as music director/pianist of the trio (with Ritt Henn on bass, Ron Tierno on drums).     

“W” is for the song title with three words that start with that letter: “The Way We Were,” summing up the night recalling their past.

“A” (yes, another A) is for the admirably adventurous arrangements 

“Y” is for youth revisited, the sisters’ generation coinciding with that of many members of the audience, smilingly mouthing the words of some of the older songs.

Put them all together and they spell “C-A-L-L-A-W-A-Y”: a name that, when attached to a show or recording, means a promise of quality entertainment, whether it’s Ann, Liz, or both.  

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Learn more about Liz and Ann Hampton Callaway on their websites at www.annhamptoncallaway.com and www.lizcallway.com

Get tickets to this show tonight, tomorrow and Saturday November 30th on 54 Below's website.

Photo by Conor Weiss

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