Review: Eva Noblezada at AMP Powered by Strathmore

Tony Award-nominated actress Eva Noblezada has had a kind of meteoric rise to stardom over the last few years. She was discovered at age seventeen by a New York casting agent at the Jimmy Awards and won the role of Kim on the West End in the Cameron Mackintosh revival of Miss Saigon. She went on to reprise the role on Broadway and received a Tony Award nomination for her performance.

After Miss Saigon closed in New York, Eva embarked on a concert tour entitled Girl No More, which graced the stage of AMP powered by Strathmore this past weekend.

Backed by her talented accompanist Jude Obermüller, Ms Noblezada, now age 22, presented a program of songs that spoke to her as a singer. She also recalled her battle with bulimia that started at a costume fitting for Miss Saigon with some comments made by one of the wardrobe people. To be sure this was a very personnel evening.

Noblezada's strong belt is part of what made people take notice in Miss Saigon and here we got plenty of that signature quality. No matter if it was Sinatra swing version of "Fly Me to the Moon" or an Amy Winehouse tune like "You Know I'm Not Good," Noblezeda demonstrated raw emotional power for her entire one-hour set.

I particularly enjoyed her D'Eva medley in which she performed pieces of songs from shows you wouldn't necessarily see her cast in. I personally think she would make a wonderful Elphaba in Wicked after hearing her rendition of "No Good Deed" but the producers have to be open minded to make that happen.

No concert of Eva Noblezada's would be complete without a song from Miss Saigon so it was totally fitting to hear "Sun and Moon Reprise."

Perhaps the most haunting performance of the night was Noblezada's performance of Elisa's song "Dancing". It was my first time hearing the song and left me asking "How did I not know this existed?"

Any concert that includes an encore of "Don't Forget Me" from the television series Smash gets a standing ovation from me and Ms. Noblezeda left saying "No, we won't forget you!"

All in all, this was a superb and unpretentious cabaret performed by a performer I hope has a long and prosperous career. Eva Noblezada's voice is truly the stuff stars are made of.

Running Time: 60 minutes with no intermission.

Eva Noblezada was a one-night-only engagement at AMP powered by Strathmore on June 24, 2018.

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