Review: No Blue Patrons At Chelsea Table + Stage After Nicolas King's SHAKING THE BLUES AWAY

I have a confession to make:  I’m in love with Nicolas King.  It’s ok, I already told my husband.  I also told Mark Sendroff, Dorian Woodruff, and Susie Mosher.  I even told Nicolas, himself, to his face: “If you’re on a stage and I’m in the audience, I’m in love.”  And if you’ve never been to a Nicolas King show, then you just don’t know.  But, trust me, I am not the only person to sit in the audience of a Nicolas King show and know what it is to be in love with Nicolas King, or why people are in love with Nicolas King.  It’s rather a foregone conclusion.  So, allow me to put you in the picture.

Nicolas King is young but he’s one of those old soul types.  From early in his life, Nicolas has gravitated toward the arts and entertainments from the middle (ish) period of the last century.  He loves the songs written and the stories told by the artists of that time period, and that is, generally, what he likes to sing, and how he likes to entertain.  So a customary Nicolas King show is built around the works of artists like Cole Porter (“Love For Sale”), Harold Arlen (“I’ve Got The World On A String”), and Alan Jay Lerner (“Too Late Now”), and inspired by the models created by entertainers like Sammy Davis Jr., Judy Garland, and Bobby Darin.  But Mr. King isn’t here to imitate those artists - he is here to keep their legacy growing into the present with a splendid mixture of his youthful exuberance, the modern parts of his personality, innovative treatments, and setlists peppered with the composers of modern day classics, like The Bergmans (“Ask Yourself Why”) and Alan Menken (“A Change In Me”).  He curates these shows to lean into his interests but what he ends up doing is showing the audience a little bit of who is, simply by showing them his personal tastes.  And then he layers in the performance, allowing people to see more of who Nicolas King is.

Nicolas King is a showman.  He’s not a showman in the way people think, when they hear the word, like Liberace, Peter Allen, Elton John.  There’s not a lot of flash, like those fellows, maybe a little sparkle in the material of a garment, but King is a rather conservative dresser, keeping it sleek, chic, and simple.  No, no, one finds his showmanship in the style and panache of his performance.  He moves about the stage with confidence and a kind of choreography that isn’t planned, that isn’t staged, that isn’t crafted - it comes from within to without, naturally, organically, and with much ease.  His body and his movements are like one of the instruments in the show, as a fist flies into the air to punctuate a musical phrase, as his knee thrusts up to emphasize a word in the lyric, and as his foot flicks out to accentuate an emotion in the story.  There is very little random movement to the man, as he makes his way around the boards (last night, Chelsea Table + Stage), seeing to it that every member of the audience on three sides gets to see what they came to see - a showman whose body goes where the music and the moment take it, but with a kind of purpose and a definite flair.

And then there is the King coup de grâce: the vocal production.  

Aside from the fact that Nicolas has one of the most genuinely beautiful voices in the business (truly easy to listen to, in person or recorded), he is one of the most skilled technicians to stand in front of a microphone (though one suspects amplification might actually be unnecessary).  When Nicolas King is singing a song, he brings to the four or five (sometimes six) minutes of the performance an at-times almost unbelievable proficiency of musical ability.  He can be swinging, he can be crooning, he can be scatting, or he can just be standing at the mic, feeling his way through the tenderest, quietest ballad you’ve ever heard almost-whispered so sweetly, and there can always be a reasonable expectation of greatness.  Whatever task he sets himself, he achieves.  Whatever sound he intends to evoke, he manages,  Whatever feat of vocal pyrotechnic he dreams of, he excels.  His entire vocal presentation in last night’s performance of the show SHAKING THE BLUES AWAY was an equal blending of technical proficiency, emotional accessibility, performative panache, and natural beauty that inspired in his audience a rousing and well-deserved show’s end standing ovation, particularly when one considers some new aspects to his show and his sound.

Nicolas King introduced two new songs (new to him, not to the world) to his repertoire last night, songs for which he is not known and for which he is not prepared… in their original state.  But when Nicolas sat down with his Musical Director, that magnificent Maestro Billy Stritch, the duo decided to dive deep into some disco and some pop, by way of two smooth, sexy, sultry, and smokin’ arrangements of Gloria Gaynor’s smash hit “I Will Survive” and Britney Spears’ debut hit single “Baby, One More Time” - the resulting performances were eye-openers that have given King a new sound and a new window of opportunity, not unlike the window of opportunity created last year when he and Seth Sikes became The New Belters.  The two year-old besties met on a sidewalk and decided to join forces, and they have been taking the industry by storm ever since, and when Sikes joined King for two different medleys last night, it was easy to see why The New Belters is the hit that it is.  Seth and Nico are wonderful together - underline it.  They are going to lift one another up, professionally and artistically, becoming one of the industry’s great performing teams - take it on faith.  Indeed, one of the professional and artistic areas in which Nicolas excels is in the picking of colleagues - how else could he have ended up on the stage with bassist Neal Miner, drummer Daniel Glass, and Mr. Stritch at the piano on vocals and arrangements?  It’s a dream team, to be sure, and a team of musical virtuosos (though King credits no director for the show, something this writer would like to see changed, for every show needs a director’s touch, if only to keep the rhetoric tight and on point).

Shaking The Blues Away is a satisfying and most welcome new show for Nicolas King.  No season in the cabaret and concert industry should go without a new King show, even while he continues his work with Sikes and any of the other artists with whom he chooses to do the occasional duo show, because he really is one of the best.  He is talented, he is individual, he is smart, he is special, and he is an artist with an eye on the stories he tells and how he wants to tell them - usually in that performative way reminiscent of Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, and Frank Sinatra.  In fact, watching Shaking The Blues Away was like watching an MGM musical in which a fabulously talented man is playing his nightclub act in a swanky Manhattan club.  Shaking The Blues Away is a Night. Club.  Act.  And the fabulously talented MGM man is Nicolas King.  And everyone in the audience is in love with him, and it shows.   Doesn’t that sound like an MGM musical?

And everyone knows that MGM musicals do, indeed, shake the blues away - each and every time.

Find great shows to see on the Chelsea Table + Stage website HERE.

THIS is the Nicolas King website.

At the bottom of this article is a list of all of Nicolas King’s upcoming performances, including those with Seth Sikes, who also has some upcoming shows.

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

Nicolas King Upcoming Shows:

6/9  - Maureen’s - Nyack, NY

6/10 - Provincetown CabaretFest - Provincetown, MA

6/16 - Villa Roma - Callicoon, NY

6/17 - Red Eye - New York, NY

7/21 - The Art House* - Provincetown, MA

7/22 - The Art House* - Provincetown, MA

8/10 - The Ice Palace* - Cherry Grove, NY

8/19 - Feinstein’s at the Hotel Carmichael* - Carmel, IN

8/24 - Davenport’s* - Chicago, IL

8/26 - Oshkosh Jazz Fest - Oshkosh, WI

9/1 - Eugene O’Neill Theatre - Waterford, CT*

9/30 - Greenvale Vineyards - Portsmouth, RI

10/1 - Johnny’s at the Atlantic Resort - Middletown, RI

10/18 - Jazz at Lincoln Center (Cabaret Convention) - New York, NY

10/20 - The Green Room 42 - New York, NY*

10/26 - Pompano Beach Cultural Center* - Pompano Beach, FL

11/5 - Orinda Theatre* - Orinda, CA

11/8 - McCallum Theatre (One Night Only Benefit Concert) - Palm Desert, CA

*Indicates “The New Belters” with Seth Sikes

Seth Sikes solo shows:

10/9 - 54 Below - NYC

11/21 - Green Room 42 - NYC

 

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