Review: Talia Suskauer Flies High In Solo Show Debut at 54 Below

Usually, when a person has a big life event, they let that be the focus of the moment, and, when it's done, they move on to the next thing. After years of playing Elphaba in the iconic musical WICKED, Talia Suskauer's tour of duty is coming to an end, and she is in her final week at the Gershwin Theater on Broadway. That's an important moment for the singing actress who, as a teenager, posted on her social media that it was her dream to, one day, play Elphaba. By all practical thought processes, Talia Suskauer should be focusing all of her energy on these last few weeks of her Broadway run. But Talia Suskauer is not just any woman or actress - she's exceptional, and she wants to do things differently. So what did she do? She made her cabaret and concert solo show debut.

It takes a lot to create a nightclub act. There is writing to be done, song selection to be examined, creative time to be spent, staff meetings and rehearsals to be attended, and for all of the promotion that you think a cabaret performer has to do - you wish it were that easy. It's a full-time job, and the fact that Talia Suskauer chose to present not one but two performances of her club debut show in the same night is, frankly, mind-boggling. But she and director Ari Axelrod developed an idea and a plan and they drove forward with it, and they proved themselves right.

Talia Suskauer's February 20th solo show debut was on the nose. It was a nearly perfect evening of cabaret, and that's something that doesn't happen for a lot of first-timers. It happened for Talia because 1) she is a natural, 2) her director is Ari Axelrod, and 3) her Musical Director is Mike Stapleton. Putting on a club act is like baking a cake, and Talia Suskauer had all the ingredients to do it right.

Talia Suskauer used her two shows (and one live stream) at 54 Below as a fine and astute introduction to the cabaret art form and industry. As a (relative) newcomer introducing herself, there was much about that self to share with her audience. To that end, there were reminiscences about her family, her formative years, and her past experiences on the stage. There were facts shared about her musical influences and how many of them were informed by family (it is very clear that the Suskauer's are a close-knit bunch), and there was a lot of talk about Elphaba, Oz, and the color green. All of this was welcome rhetoric because Talia's tale is not only a delight, it is interesting. The story of a young woman manifesting her dream role into a reality - that's interesting. The humor to be found in her familial relationships is touching, especially when Papa Suskauer is in the room to take a light ribbing about certain pitchy elements in his Jim Croce lullabies sung to baby Talia. The heartwarming effect of seeing singing siblings Talia and Becca perform together is uplifting, especially because the sisters are both such gifted vocalists as to go toe-to-toe with one another with absolutely no sense of competition, only that of two women lifting one another up, the way it should always be. The seventy-five-minute program was, literally, nothing but family, show business, and Oz, and it is only due to Talia's immense sincerity that the proceedings never became cringey (although there was an element of verbosity that might indicate the presence of nerves sending Talia off-book at points). Suskauer is a natural-born storyteller, comfortable on the small stage, and at home with both her audience and the concept of opening up to a darkened room full of people. She is on equal footing while engaged in either the act of chatting or crooning.

And on the subject of crooning...

Talia Suskauer is a great singer. More than that, she is a great singing actress. Each and every one of her musical numbers was steeped in the intentional nature of an actor telling a story. Whether rocking out to opening number "Taking Chances" or bona fide breaking hearts with "So In Love," Suskauer does a deep dive into the lyrics and what those lyrics mean to her. These are musical monologues to the actress, and the work she has done with Axelrod is apparent, as there are certain mission statements in Ari's own work as a performer and instructor that make an Axelrod performance an Axelrod performance. They aren't rote but they are trademarked, and that which Ari Axelrod brings to his own "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?" resonated resoundingly off of Talia's "Music That Makes Me Dance" - a performance that made this writer ask himself: has there ever been a five-foot-eleven Fanny Brice? Because this was one of the loveliest, most nuanced, and original performances of the famed torch song this fan of Funny Girl has ever witnessed. A++.

Suskauer's entire musical program came right off of the top shelf, particularly a genius (no, really, genius) medley of songs the towering teenager played in High School when all of the roles in which she was cast tended toward being mothers and matriarchs, simply because she was so much taller than the rest of the cast. And although Talia's finale "I've Loved These Days" left this writer wishing for something more, something that was either a joyful uptempo or a hopeful ballad, rather than a composition that was more nebulously in-between, her Oz-centric encore of "Over the Rainbow" and "Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road" was not only appropriate, it was brilliant, thanks to Stapleton's arrangement. Throughout the evening, it was nice to see the way that Talia trusts her Musical Director - oftentimes, she turned to him for those eyeball conversations that artistic colleagues have when they have each other's backs, as well as complete and utter trust. That relationship doesn't always manifest itself in a visible way but this was one of the nights when it did, and it made more replete the experience of being at the Talia Suskauer show.

The highlights of the musical monologues came in back-to-back performances of a Stephen Sondheim medley and Billy Joel's "She's Always a Woman." The acting during the Merrily We Roll Along mashup was beyond compare in a manner that illustrated just how great a concert performer Suskauer is going to be, and the Joel number was the musical moment in the show when Talia, most, dropped the curtain and let the audience in. The element that kept the evening, for this writer, from being absolutely perfect was an overabundant usage of the horizon line during the songs - and that's ok, there are those who do this, even though the art form of cabaret is most beneficially enjoyed when the performer looks right into the eyes of the audience, rather than at the horizon line. During this moment near the end of the play, though, Talia was in complete connection with the audience, and there was an inkling of what the show could have been like, had that connection been ever-present. Mind you, this was at the seven pm show, the first show, the one where nerves get the best of an actor. I am reliably informed that, at the 9:30 show, no such horizon line existed. One may surmise that either Axelrod and Suskauer had a staff meeting between shows, or the headliner from Oz shook off her nerves and dove in, feet first, having found her rhythm during the first show. Whatever the reason, this writer is happy to hear about the change, for it will make all the difference in Talia's shows, moving forward.

Near the start of her eponymous musical cabaret show, Talia Suskauer told the audience that this was "the musical sum of all my parts." Everyone should be so lucky as to be able to compile the sum of their parts into one seventy-five-minute evening of entertainment, but Talia Suskauer has (clearly) impeccable instincts, and (obviously) great guides helping her make this transition from one brick road to another. As she enters this next lane of her life in show business, one can only hope that she stays in it for a while because she's good. She's really, really good at this, indeed, a tornado of talent and Talia Suskauer is going to use that tornado to fly right into all our hearts as a cabaret and concert star for the times in which we live, dream, and defy gravity.

The Talia Suskauer Band was Josh Roberts on drums, Ann Klein on guitar, and Musical Director Mike Stapleton on piano.

The producer of the Talia Suskauer show was Corey Steinfast.

Find great shows to see on the 54 Below website HERE.

Visit the Talia Suskauer website HERE.

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

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