Review: T. Oliver Reid Is BOFFO At Below in THAT SUNDAY, THAT SUMMER At 54 Below

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

Well, Bobby readers, Monday night's performance of T. Oliver Reid: THAT SUNDAY, THAT SUMMER at everybody's fave eatery/singery, 54 Below, was most definitely one for the books... Bobby's books especially, since we had not yet experienced this very experienced all-around performer, a veteran of more than a dozen Broadway musicals, where he has done duty covering (and occasionally replacing) everyone from Mary Sunshine all the way to Hades & Hermes and back again. As a matter of fact, he just recently fully inherited (as in his name and face on the poster inherited) the role of Hermes from our beloved André De Shields, who is departing HADESTOWN for what we are sure will be a cheery, upbeat revival of DEATH OF A SALESMAN. After seeing THAT SUNDAY, THAT SUMMER we are thoroughly convinced that not only does La De Shields leave his role in the best of hands, but they are in fact the hands of a true heir apparent, well worth the price of your ticket. Now, as you can already tell, my dearlings, this review is gonna be a rave, but Bobby is going to dig in a little and fill you in on why we rave these raves. Reid's show, a tribute to relationships, took everyone in the hall on a roller coaster ride through the hearts & flowers, darts & showers that are the mountains and valleys of this thing called love. Not just young love in its blossoming, but the love that comes in the door to stay, to fulfill, to lift you up, and sometimes to throw you back down and kick the crap out of you before it goes back to loving and fulfilling - in short, marriage. Reid himself knows whereof he speaks in this department since he and his hubby, Jeremiah, have been at it 12 years so far, and now, with expert music direction and accompaniment by Lawrence Yurman, he has crafted a show that, though he himself said is not perfect YET, perfectly captures the beauty of those rolling rollercoaster hills of love, desire, pain, and champagne.

Now, If you keep up with the Broadway and are a true fan, then you know there are players on our boards designated as understudies, covers, swings, and standbys - all of them different positions occupied by holders of Equity cards that signify those actors charged with stepping in and stepping up into parts in a musical either with some notice or with ZERO notice that the player in those parts must vacate for a night, a 2-week vacation, or, owing to a sudden and unexpected circumstance, the second act. This past year's health crisis brought these amazing performers to the fore when a high-ranking theatre professional that shall not be named here Twitter-dragged understudies as "less-thans" on our NYC stages, clearly forgetting that just making it into a Broadway show after all the singing and dancing and readings oh my means you're one of the best in the biz, which brings Bobby right back to T. Oliver Reid a master at the stepping in and stepping up. Presenting a 17-song setlist by the likes of the Bergmans, the Gershwins, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Rodgers & Charnin, and just plain Cole Porter, TOR seemed, at first blush, to be a professional nightclub performer (which indeed he is) possessed of a finely modulated lyric baritone that he used in making the room feel cozy and comfortable and ready for a good old-fashioned set of crooning and conjuring in the night. It all seemed so silky, smooth, and rich in his marriage of voice and lyrics as the swing feel in his early numbers transported everyone back in time, with THE NEARNESS OF YOU adding in an element of emotion simmering underneath. And then came his first trilogy of songs that brought in something extra - not a medley of songs mashed up into one number, mind you, but three distinct slots on his setlist that TOR sang in succession with no break between - SPRING CAN REALLY HANG YOU UP THE MOST, a spritely DO I LOVE YOU, and I'VE GOT YOU UNDER MY SKIN. You see, my lambs, there are wonderful performers who can take the stage and give first-rate entertainment with their voices and personalities and we all love them. Then there are those that have that certain quality of singing with emotion under control, and we all incline towards them because they feel familiar, since the emotion is familiar. Then there are the singers like T. Oliver Reid - the actors who are locked in the struggle with those emotions - not in a raw and challenging way, since this is a nightclub show, but with an edge. There is no past tense to what they are feeling in the songs, it is happening now and the words and music are what they NEED to keep the emotions at bay - sometimes just barely. It's an extra vibration within the performer's inner self, their instrument if you will, that translates the untranslateable and passes it to the audience in ways they might not understand immediately or ever. It's just there and it is relentless and unavoidable, never heavy, but full. TOR has mastered this musical acting technique that takes him that one step beyond, and then, Falsetto!

That is actually a misnomer, though, as singing in the counter-tenor vocal range of a Mary Sunshine from Kander & Ebb's CHICAGO is far more than raising your vocal pitch to a whistley, child-like timbre. TOR's performance of the gut-wrenching Gershwin standard SUMMERTIME in this voice was, in a word, thrilling. This, followed by his second trilogy of the night - 2 songs by the Bergmans, YOU DON'T BRING ME FLOWERS, HOW DO YOU KEEP THE MUSIC PLAYING and Mike Reid's I CAN'T MAKE YOU LOVE ME - gave the crowd the heartbreak portion of the evening with real tears, and then, singing a Sara Bareilles/John Legend mash up of GRAVITY and ALL OF ME to his husband in the audience gave everyone in the house the healing we all needed. Finally, THAT SUNDAY, THAT SUMMER was a story of those relationships between people who, for the most part, are loving each other for the long haul and the kitchen sink by a performer who is well worth the price, and so we give T. Oliver Reid our highest compliment when we tell you to BUY A TICKET next time he plays... oh and also our full...

5 Out Of 5 Rainbows.

Keep Up With All Things T. Oliver Reid On His Webby: HERE

As A Founder Of The Black Theatre Coalition TOR Donated Proceeds From His Show To This Fine Organization. Read All About It: HERE

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