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If you’re
a theatre maven (or queen, perhaps) – and
who in New York isn’t, for what’s the point
of enduring all of New York’s difficulties
if not for the saving grace of the theatre?
– then one of life’s little joys in this
town is witnessing the growth and evolution
of various theatrical performers you
recognize from various shows. Watching a
particular performer stretch beyond the
confines of one show into something else
altogether in another show, it’s nice to
give yourself a little pat on the back for
being one of the first who recognized that
talent from your seat on the aisle. And this
past Halloween night was the perfect
opportunity to witness the startling
transformations of a number of extremely
talented Broadway singers as they sang their
way through the Elvis Costello songbook in a
benefit for the crisis center Friends in
Deed.
For nearly thirty years, Mr. Costello has
been making music which hooks in the memory
banks, writing songs about the costs of love
and relationships and the injustices of
life, but perhaps the extreme largesse of
Costello’s work becomes more readily
apparent when sung by a group of savvy
performers possessing of some of the city’s
most idiosyncratic voices.
Take, for example, Daphne Rubin-Vega’s
rendition of “Everyday I Write the Book,”
which Ms. Vega performed as if she were
Marilyn Monroe as a majorette in black
leather and white tutu. Complete with black
leather platform boots, Ms. Vega sold this
song with the aplomb of a Vegas showgirl,
thereby erasing any previous evidence of Mr.
Costello himself ever singing a song once so
completely associated with him.
Similarly, Justin Bond, who appeared wearing
a kind of shadowy-gray outfit one might
associate with London during the Blitz,
ripped through a version of “(I Don’t Want
to Go To) Chelsea” which had him scatting
like Ella as he forgot the lyrics and, to
hilarious effect, confessed his addictions
in a manner more often associated with the
rooms of AA.
And then there was Raul Esparza. Anyone who
has ever heard Mr. Esparza onstage knows
there is no question this gifted performer
knows how to sell a song. From Sondheim to
Jonathan Larson, Esparza becomes his
material – and last night was no exception
as he tore into “God Give Me Strength” and
made it a primeval call for the faith to go
on loving in the face of betrayal. It was a
brilliant performance which made you wonder
if you’d ever before really heard the song.
And never again would you hear it without
Esparza’s version echoing in your memory.
So much talent packed into one theater for
one night. Prior to singing “So Like Candy,”
Sherie Rene Scott gave a most endearing
speech about her guilt at not being downtown
at the Halloween parade where “her people”
were, the gays and lesbians. Not that she is
one, as she confessed, though she did define
herself as “Q for questioning,” and
thereafter, launched into a version of “So
Like Candy” which should have had more than
a few lesbians in attendance waiting at her
dressing room door.
There was also Nellie MacKay who worked
“Party Girl” in her adorably kewpie doll
style as she accompanied herself on the
piano, and Billy Porter with a beautiful
rendition of “She,” and also Marcy Harriell
who bopped her way through “Radio, Radio,”
and in so doing, generated an enormous
amount of the incredible energy which
followed in the performances thereafter.
Complete with Mr. Costello’s own
performances at evening’s end, “Brilliant
Mistake” was one of those thrilling
theatrical evenings in New York which make
you realize, yet again, that there was never
any mistake in making the choice to settle
in this music-rich and
performance-heavyweight town.
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