Review: Russell Harvard Goes Next Level With His ASL Cabaret FROM THE GROUND UP at 54 Below

When I arrived at 54 Below on Friday night for the Russell Harvard show, I knew there was a waiting list - I had seen it on the website. My plus-one for the evening had canceled, and there were paying guests, guests who really wanted to see Russell's ASL cabaret, and I had two seats to spare. After a brief tête-à-tête with concierge Dylan Bustamante, my two seats were made available and I had a spot, standing at the back of the club, in Photographer Corner (Dylan seemed shocked I wanted to give my seats but I've seen plenty of shows from the back of the theater, I didn't mind standing).

Giving up those seats was one of the smartest things I ever did.

Russell Harvard's show FROM THE GROUND UP is a good show. And Russell Harvard is a good cabaret artist. Had I been in my usual seat, reserved for 54 Below press, I would have been able to enjoy both Russell and his cabaret play in the extreme. While standing at the back of the theater, though, I was able to watch his audience enjoy his performance... and THAT was theater.

By simple virtue of the fact that deaf and hard of hearing people cannot hear, all of their communication is visual - at least, almost all of it is because there are those members of the deaf community who have residual hearing, and, naturally, everybody can feel the vibrations of the music. Still, the fact remains that being able to see a deaf actor perform a nightclub act is essential to the enjoyment of their storytelling. American Sign Language (ASL) is more than a form of communication, it is an artform of expressive beauty, and when a deaf actor is telling stories, they don't just use ASL, they put their entire being into their craft through dance and through facial expressions - it is an all-encompassing activity, and a very physical one. That physicality, though, is not limited to the actor on the stage: the audience response is physical as well, it is visual as well, because the actor should be afforded the immediate response that hearing actors get when they are performing theater. So the deaf and hard of hearing members of the audience were inclined to give Mr. Harvard more in return than the universal deaf form of applause, the waving of hands in the air. There was much waving, and chair dancing, and sometimes people rising out of their seats with their dancing. There was an active, assertive, appreciative exchange of energy between Russell Harvard and the full house of patrons at 54 Below. It was a sight to behold, beautiful, heartwarming, human.

Just like Russell Harvard.

A veteran of three Broadway plays, Mr. Harvard is easily one of the most likable performers ever to set foot onto a cabaret stage. In her opening introduction on Friday night, Alexandria Wailes waxed poetic and praiseful about his qualities, at times making him sound rather too good to be true, but after spending seventy minutes with him and his musical cabaret, it was more than clear that Ms. Wailes was only speaking that which is fact. It was easy to spend those seventy minutes with Russell Harvard because he is a gifted storyteller, abundant of honesty and humor, adorable of personality, and almost uncomfortably easy on the eye. He is the complete package. And he can dance. That's a big part of Harvard's cabaret show because his musical storytelling is a breathtaking flurry of sign language, lip-synching, and dancing to recorded music by Madonna and Paula Abdul and Lady Gaga, as well as music performed by artists sharing the stage with Russell, like Tom Berklund, Andy Mientus, and theatrical treasure Michael Cerveris. And while the dancing did come into play during the sung-through numbers from The Wizard of Oz (Berklund), Spring Awakening (Mientus) and Sweeney Todd (Cerveris), getting to watch Russell get his groove on to those Eighties pop divas (and a divo or two) informed the audience of something important about Harvard: his playfulness. How much a person invests their body into the act of dancing says a lot about them - and what we learned about Russell Harvard is that he is fun, and fun is remarkably endearing.

Also endearing about Russell is the frankness with which he communicates with his audience. He has nothing to hide, no pretense, no wish to be anything but transparent. Did he need to look at his script? Yes, and he told us he did, and he told us he was nervous. Did he sweat so much that he needed to change his shirt, on stage, mid-show? Yes, and he did, and he laughed when dollar bills were thrown up onto the stage (and when Cerveris crept up under the piano to swipe the discarded sweaty garment from the floor as a keepsake). Did he make jokes about how much he had to hydrate? (Remember, this was a VERY physical show). Yes, and we loved it. We really loved him. Russell kept the audience in the conversation at all times, explaining what drew him to performing, why he was attracted to pieces of music, how particular theatrical experiences informed his life. During all seventy minutes of FROM THE GROUND UP, Russell Harvard engaged his audience in an intimate expression of who he is as an artist and who he is as a man, and that is what cabaret is all about: intimacy. Russell Harvard has the makings of a fine cabaret and concert show about him, and he has the makings of a fine cabaret and concert star about him: that is to say, a fine cabaret and concert star, not a fine deaf cabaret and concert star. Hearing people might think that there is nothing in From The Ground Up for them, but they would be wrong, they would be very wrong.

From The Ground Up is not my first cabaret show by a deaf actor. Early in my tenure at Broadway World Cabaret I caught a wonderful club act by Joshua Castille (who, I think, I clocked in the audience at this act) in which he performed ASL and dance to recorded pop songs and show tunes. I, and many others, have enjoyed Rian Keating's MAC Award winning cabaret/storytelling shows - Keating is not deaf from birth and has some experience talking and singing, though he is very open about his need for powerful hearing aids - his are not ASL shows, though they are informed by his being a deaf person. There is no reason why anybody should let the fact that Russell Harvard does not perform as a singing artist deter them from coming to enjoy his storytelling. Indeed, it is one of the reasons why everyone should come. Whether working side-by-side with fellow deaf actors John McGinty ("Rum Tum Tugger") or Wailes ("Drifting" by Groovelily), or performing alongside hearing actors providing the vocals, the entire program is a dance between the artists, a mutual exchange of contented energies, and a collaborative effort between like minds, especially when it comes to Russell and his Musical Director Dan Pardo, who keeps his eye on every performer, at all times, and who never misses a thing. It's an admirable feat, particularly when one considers that there is no director credited for the show (something Harvard and producer Jo-Ann Dean might want to rethink).

Particularly enjoyable during From The Ground Up were a pas-de-troi between singing actor Mientus and deaf actors Harvard and Treshelle Edmond to the Spring Awakening number "The Mirror-Blue Night" (it was artistically extremely satisfying) and the "Sweet Transvestite" between Russell and Cerveris, which was a little slice of camp heaven on earth. But the unquestionable triumph of the evening was watching the full force of Harvard's acting commitment and manual dexterity while performing "Waving Through a Window" - it was a tour-de-force performance that, alone, made the ticket price and walk to the club in the unbearable heat worth while. The truth is, though, that the entirety of Russell Harvard's ASL cabaret show is worth catching because it is more than entertainment: it is a window, allowing us to see inside of the life of another human being, which we all need, and which cabaret is so good at doing.

I write a lot about the need for inclusivity and diversity in cabaret. Not just for people of color, not just for members of the LGBTQIA+ community, for everyone. I have sat in this room at 54 Below and watched shows created by black artists that are attended by primarily black audiences. I have sat in this room at 54 Below and watched programs centering around the Latin experience, the Asian community, the trans artists, all of which have been attended by members of the Latin, Asian, and trans communities. But they shouldn't be. These programs that the fine folks at 54 Below facilitate should be attended by everyone. We should, all of us, be seeking out cabaret theater that doesn't just entertain but that helps us to expand our minds, to broaden our experiences. These are the days of inclusivity, especially here, in New York, where the citizens fight bigotry and stand together (not absolutely everyone, of course, but the vast majority) in an effort to create equality and community. Members of society and of the cabaret and concert community should be populating the audiences of these programs at 54 Below (and other like-minded clubs) in an effort to learn, to grow, and to support. The rewards are great because, not only do we get to learn about people whose life experiences are different than our own, we get to make room at the table for those artists who fit into a different demographic than ours. When we expand the audience at shows like From The Ground Up to include more than just the deaf community, we normalize the possibility that theaters around the country will show an interest in Russell Harvard's show, not because it's a good deaf cabaret, but because it's good cabaret. When we make ourselves, our audiences, our community one that is all-inclusive, we make possible group shows and Award ceremonies and casts made up of artists of every single demographic working the club circuit. Representation is important, and that means making space for artists of all the demographics at every club, in every show, not just the ones that will be attended by other people from that demographic, looking to see their stories being told. We should all want to hear all the stories, and we should all want to raise up the people telling those stories. From The Ground Up is cabaret theater that would suit any room where there is a stage and an audience looking for fine storytelling and a window through which to look, to see, to learn. That's why Russell Harvard's musical autobiographical cabaret isn't just good theater, it's important theater, bestowing upon Russell Harvard that rare and wonderful combination that is artist and activist.

Without knowing it, Russell Harvard has created one of the most important shows of the season.

The wonderful ASL interpreter for From The Ground Up was Alberto Medero and Michael Purcell served as voice interpreter for Russell Harvard.

Find more great cabaret and concert work at the 54 Below website HERE.

THIS is the Russell Harvard Instagram page and the Russell Harvard Facebook page is HERE. Twitter users can find Russell Harvard HERE.

Learn more about FROM THE GROUND UP Producer Jo-Ann Dean and the work being done by Broadway SIGNs! at the SIGNmation website HERE.

Photos by Stephen Mosher

Visit the Stephen Mosher website HERE.

To post a comment, you must register and login.