Fall in "Love" with Christine Andreas
Performing Arts
Nov 21, 2014 to Nov 29, 2014
Official Site
54 Below, the delightfully intimate cabaret on West 54th Street, has really found multiple ways to have patrons to say “yes” to leaving their homes in chilly No-No-November. After presenting sold-out shows earlier this month by the incomparable Patti LuPone and the wonderful Jeremy Jordan, next week, they will host the sublime singer-songwriter Ann Hampton Callaway (November 23-29) and the debut show of the handsome Broadway baby David Burtka, directed by his hubby, Neil Patrick Harris (November 25-26).
But there’s a major reason to say “oui, oui” to heading out to the classy club on November 21-22: the truly divine Christine Andreas, a two-time Tony Award nominee, and her husband and musical partner Martin Silvestri are serving up their newest collaboration “Love Is Good”. The title is admittedly an understatement in more ways than one, for the show – which the couple joke has been 23 years in the making – is simply phenomenal.
This 80-minute collection of some of the world’s best (and best-known) love songs, peppered with amusing and heartfelt recollections for the couple’s life and career, begins with a truly bewitching take on Frank Wildhorn and Nan Knighton’s luxurious waltz “Storybook,” which Andreas introduced in Broadway’s “The Scarlet Pimpernel.” From there, we move on through such highlights as Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s gorgeous “I Could Have Danced All Night,” and bittersweet “I Remember It Well,” (in which Silvestri does a grand impression of Maurice Chevalier), Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz’s pun-filled paean to the U.S, “Rhode Island (Is Famous For You)”, Sammy Cahn and Gene DePaul’s timelessly seductive “Teach Me Tonite,” and Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick’s joyously giddy “He Loves Me,” each done to perfection. Andreas can belt like the best of them, still hit the high notes, and find the right interpretation for each lyric – a true triple-threat.
The show also has a bit of a Continental flavor, as Andreas uses her perfect French not just in one section of “Storybook,” but in the enchanting “Love Is Good” (written by Silvestri and Tony Tanner), and in a vocally stunning version of Edith Piaf’s “La Vie En Rose”. And you will be transported to Tuscany during the singer’s lush take on Mary Chapin-Carpenter’s “What If We Went to Italy,” while Silvestri deftly accompanies her on the accordion.
If I had to choose the highest point of this musical mountain, it would be Andreas’ ultra-sensitive rendition of Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s glorious “Alfie” (paired with a section of the pair’s “What the World Needs Now.”) Before she sings, Andreas urges us all to listen closely to what she calls this “eloquent conversation” and you could have literally heard a pin drop as she “talked” to us, in David’s wondrous words, about the meaning of true love. And let’s face it, love is not just good, it’s great! And so is Christine Andreas!
Author: Brian Scott Lipton
54 Below
Concert Halls/Venues
West 50s
254 West 54th St (Cellar)
New York, NY 10019
(646) 476-3551
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