Review: TORCH SONGS FOR THE TALENTED TENTH: AN EDU-TAINING EVENING WITH NIK WALKER AND PALS at 54 Below Has A Lot To Say

Nik Walker is one heck of a storyteller. He is also one of the most gifted singers a person could ever hope to sit in a room and listen to live, or, failing that, listen to on a recording, on film, or on a social media post. He is talented as both a singer and a storyteller, over-the-moon likable, the embodiment of kindness and heart, and, since he mentioned he is writing a play, one suspects he is also a talented writer. Of all his talents, though, the talent of writing is the one that was not on display last night at 54 Below.

Nik Walker's show Torch Songs for the Talented Tenth: An Edu-taining Evening with Nik Walker and Pals played to a full house in the Midtown Manhattan nightclub known as Broadway's Living Room last night, and the event page on the 54 Below website tantalized potential patrons with the promise of rock, soul, fresh stories, and unique perspectives. It also indicated that there would be stories about Nik Walker's life as a black child growing to manhood in an all-white town and battling prejudice through his formative years, his college career, and, ultimately, in a chosen industry where black people have always been marginalized. Let it, now, be said that the 54 Below website did not exaggerate: that is exactly what Nik Walker delivered in his show last night. To be sure. All of it.

Nik Walker's show about his life as a black man, about the black experience, about The Talented Tenth (learn more HERE), and about the extraordinary friends and family from whose love and support he has built his very existence was a beautiful show filled with world-class musical entertainment and top shelf talent. He himself, sang a relatively small portion of the evening's music, preferring, instead, to shine a light on some eight friends from Broadway and beyond (eleven guest artists were announced), and each and every one of these supremely gifted performers brought their vocal A-Game (and some brought their lyrics and devices). Not one musical performance could be judged as anything less than stellar, every note sung, and every accompanying emotion were impeccable, particularly numbers from James Monroe Iglehart and Justin Sargent that brought down the house and brought back the Eighties. The rock and soul was definitely in the room last night, and every person in the seats out front was made the happier for it.

Also in the room last night was the advertised and expected discussion of Nik Walker's experience in life as a black man. It was and is an important discussion, and one that needs to be had and heard. It's a different discussion for every black person living, with varying details and similar experiences, but it is a discussion for all of our black citizens, not just the storytellers who have microphones. It's not a discussion that is unique to our black brothers and sisters and gender-non-confirming siblings because similar stories have been shared on cabaret and club stages around the city by members of the Latin, Asian, MENASA, queer, and disabled (for lack of a better word) communities, indeed, most often on the 54 Below stage. And every time an artist born into a demographic that is less, shall we say, homogenized tells their story, it is important, it is valuable, and it is worth listening to. There were aspects of Mr Walker's spoken program last night that resonated, deeply, with this writer who grew up as either the only gay or the only Filipino kid in school, right through college. Still, there were large chunks of Mr. Walker's story that were eye-opening, educational, and happily heard by this champion of equality who hopes that everybody in the room was listening and grateful to learn more about the black experience, The Talented Tenth, and the individual lives of all people of diversity.

Inviting Sasha Hutchings to share the stage with him for the duration of his program, Nik Walker answered questions and shared frank discussion with his friend in a chat show-styled format that, while avoiding deliberate jocularity of a serious topic, was often relegated to hilarity because Walker and all of his friends feel and spread a great deal of benevolence and affection, and that is a place where good will and good humor live. These honest and heartfelt chats that were the connective tissue between the musical numbers were informative and emotional, always drawing Nik Walker ever closer to his audience; indeed, it was like Nik Walker was presenting two shows - a chat show and a music program.

The problem is that the cabaret and concert format is not built for two shows, it is built for one.

When an artist decides to embark on a venture in the field of cabaret and concert, there are certain factors that must be taken into consideration, certain rules of engagement, if you will, to which the artist must adhere: the creation of a structure, the development of an arc, the observation of a timeline. Not one of these elements was applied to Mr. Walker's evening of storytelling last night, which is why Torch Songs For The Talented Tenth ran nearly two hours long. To be clear and to be blunt: no show playing a cabaret room should play for two hours. To add insult to serious injury, the program was twenty minutes late starting. That means that a nightclub act announced for 9:30 started at 9:50, ran one hour and fifty-three minutes long, and let out at 11:43 on a Sunday night. At the ninety-minute mark, audience members could be seen leaving the venue. Waiters who had been at work since four pm could be seen anxiously passing out checks and attempting to clean tables while the show was still in process. Patrons who had grown uncomfortable from sitting for so long were making bathroom runs and pacing at the bar to stretch their legs. And all of this could have been avoided if Mr. Walker had sat down with a director and written a script for his show, after asking what the story was that he wanted to tell, and what would be the most economic way of telling that story. Because even though the room last night was filled with friends and family who would happily sit still for two hours without worrying about the timing of the train they needed to take home and the exorbitant babysitting fees they would be paying out, there was another type of guest at the club last night: the paying guest, the venue patron, the stranger who has never met Nik Walker, who just came to hear the remarkable voice of the man they saw in Hamilton. Those paying guests who never met Nik Walker before came for a show, they came for sixty minutes, seventy minutes, maybe even seventy-five minutes of great music. They did not come to be kept out til midnight on a Sunday, when they have to be up at five am, getting the kids up for school at six am, and in the office at eight am. At some point, a certain amount of respect must be shown for the cabaret and concert format, for the employees of the establishment, and for the audience that is not made up of friends and family. This show was sold as a public event, not as a birthday party, a retirement party, or a family celebration, which is what it began to feel like, as the minutes ticked by and the length of the show became more and more uncomfortable. Eventually, this kind of self-indulgence leaves an artist with an audience that won't remember the great storytelling and excellent music: all they will remember is that time they were kept out til midnight, watching a two-hour cabaret show that should have had them out of the club and on their way home before 11. What artists need to do when entertaining the idea of creating a cabaret show or concert for a cabaret room is sit down with a director and make an outline to help them achieve their goal, with the knowledge that audiences walk in the door with three questions: 1) Why am I here? 2) What's in this for me? 3) When can I go home? Once their book has been created, the artist can present their show with purpose, without extemporaneous prattle, and with absolute confidence in their product.

If Nik Walker intends to move forward with additional performances of this show (which he should because he has something real here, centered around his own life story and The Talented Tenth) he might consider paring down his roster of guest artists, writing a script, and telling his story himself. At a certain point in the evening, the NYU graduate mentioned that his college career included mention of no other black playwright than August Wilson. Well, Nik Walker's a writer, one with a story to tell, a good one. He's got two hours of material here - that's two acts of a play, a play that could make Mr. Walker into a storyteller in the same vein as John Leguizamo. Torch Songs For The Talented Tenth could be developed into something longer that can be played in a venue where people are expecting two hours' worth of entertainment, music, and thought-provoking storytelling, which is somewhat different from the "Coffeehouse vibe" that Walker said he wanted to create for last night. And he did create that vibe, and he did reach his audience, and he did make a connection, and he did entertain, in the extreme. But, with Torch Songs for the Talented Tenth: An Edu-taining Evening with Nik Walker and Pals, he also created a show that felt as long as its title, and when it comes to cabaret and concert, that's too long.

The full cast of Torch Songs for the Talented Tenth: An Edu-taining Evening with Nik Walker and Pals included Gerard Canonico, Christine Dwyer, Sasha Hutchings, James Monroe Iglehart, Chris Jackson, Taylor Symone Jackson, Justin Sargent, and Kyle Scatliffe.

The extraordinary Torch Songs for the Talented Tenth was Dillon Kondor on Guitar, Buffi Jacobs on Cello, Musical Director Lily Ling on Piano, and guest artists Gerard Canonico on Percussion.

Check out the show calendar for 54 Below on their website HERE.

Nik Walker is on Instagram HERE and Twitter HERE.

Photos by Stephen Mosher

Visit the Stephen Mosher website HERE.

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