Review: Joshua Henry at Kennedy Center as part of Renée Fleming's VOICES Series

Every once in awhile I go to a concert and say "Wow! He/She is very talented but is trying too hard to win over the audience". That was my impression after watching one of the stars of the current Broadway revival of Into The Woods Joshua Henry this past Saturday night at Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater.

His program started off on a high note with "Wait For It" from Hamilton. This was just one of the shows that Henry has performed in on Broadway represented during the evening. Following that, we had "Feeling Good" from The Roar of The Greasepaint The Smell of The Crowd. It was at this point that Henry asked the audience repeatedly if they were feeling good. I thought ok, maybe once or twice and he'll get it out of his system. It's almost as if Henry felt the audience wasn't going to be with him during his performance when you knew they were from his first entrance.

Once you got past this there was plenty of good music to be heard. A few highlights include "You Matter to Me" from "Waitress" which Henry closed on Broadway and a funked-up version of "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess. Also on the Broadway side of his repretory was "No One Is Alone" from his current show Into The Woods.

One of the top performances was basically Henry's audition to be cast in Ragtime as Coalhouse Walker Jr. with a killer rendition of "Wheels of a Dream". It was one of the top concert performances I've ever seen.

As Joshua Henry is also a songwriter, there were a few of his original songs included as well. "Nothing to Say" was by far my favorite.

As much as I enjoyed Henry's History of Soul section, I did feel it went on a little longer than needed.

Joshua Henry's band was red hot the whole concert. On keyboards, we had Addison Frei, Jordan Peters on guitar, Kyle Miles on bass and Jaylen Petinaud on drums/percussion. The quartet literally blew the roof off the Terrace Theater with their dynamic playing.

Overall, Joshua Henry's concert was great when it was just him singing. I wish the whole experience was as satisfying as the vocal brilliance.

Running Time: One hour and 45 minutes with no intermission.

Joshua Henry as part of Renée Fleming's VOICES Series was a one night only engagement on December 17th, 2022 at Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater.

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