Review: Crystal Lewis Is To Be Heard In THAT'S WHAT I'D SAY at The Laurie Beechman Theatre

I had an email from Michael D’angora over at The Beechman asking if I would mind coming to review the singer Crystal Lewis, because he really believes in her and wants New York to know about her and fall in love with her, too.  It was a reasonable request - after all, there are a lot of artists that I have loved over the years that I wanted to shout to everyone

about, that I wanted to share with the world, and even though I was entirely unfamiliar with the Crystal Lewis catalogue, there was every chance that Michael was leading me to a special artist that I would love as much as he did, that I would want to spread the magic of.

Well, that is exactly what happened.

It didn’t take a matter of minutes (maybe seconds) for Crystal Lewis to get my attention, and she kept my attention for the entire duration of her musical cabaret THAT’S WHAT I’D SAY.  There are a lot of singers and a lot of singer-songwriters, and a lot of them are worth listening to, but every now and then you come across a talent so singular, so spectacular, that your breath is taken away and your mind is blown, and you can’t believe the talent isn’t known by everyone in the world.  That is the experience I had at the Crystal Lewis show April 21st.  And my date for the evening, a cabaret artist who regularly sells out important rooms, felt the exact same way I did.  Repeatedly throughout the evening, we would turn just to show each other our expressions of incredulity.  Crystal Lewis grabbed us both, right where we live, and was keeping us happily captive.

For her 100-minute show (too long, but we didn’t care), Crystal Lewis divided her time between covers abd her own compositions, with an abundance of monology connecting the musical offerings.  It would not be appropriate to say there was an abundance of script because all evidence pointed toward the idea that Ms. Lewis was speaking absolutely extemporaneously, which allowed her audience to get a sense of who she really is, and every bit of the personality revealed is enjoyable, likable, and adorable.  As charming as an entertainer could be, Ms. Lewis is a living, breathing, laughing Wheel of Chance when it comes to stories, emotions, experiences, and philosophies.  Her rhetoric for the evening traced the trajectory of her life and her art, with reminiscences about her family, factoids about her career(s), and heartfelt, joyful and sincere details regarding lessons learned along the way.  And although her tangential talk could lean into the loquacious, the lady had the audience in the palm of her hand, from start to finish.  Crystal Lewis is easily one of the most likable artists ever to tread the boards.  She is irresistible, through and through.

And then she sings.

Friends, this is a voice you have to hear.  She has several albums of varying genres (and, it turns out, some Grammy Award nominations to accompany them), and on May 21st, the crowd got to hear her individual one of a kind voice playing a number of those genres, including some spiritual music (“Precious Lord”), some blues (a medley of “Summertime” and “Blue Skies” was an evening highlight), some jazz (“Can’t Buy Me Love”), a version of  “It Ain’t That Easy Being Green” that had the audience Oooo’ing at the top and cheering at the end, and a bountiful cornucopia of her own compositions.  The range of style is impressive, for Lewis flows between all genres with ease, embracing and embodying impeccable treatments for each composition that didn’t just allow Crystal to showcase her own style of storytelling, but that of her musicians, a team of savvy proficients who met and rehearsed together on the morning of, for about thirty minutes.  In spite of being new to one another, the four musicians worked so well together that one might have thought they had been playing out for years - and the band (Pianist Jake Nalangan, Bassist Adi Meyerson, and Drummer Anton Kot) could be observed jubilantly laughing throughout the performance.  In her talks with the audience, Lewis outlined that she had started her career with rockabilly and transitioned to rock (with some gospel on the way), but she and her sensational band were serving pure jazz interpretation and phrasing, all on their first day together.  Attention must be paid.

For the more personal moments of programming, Crystal Lewis played seven different songs created at her hands, each of them exquisite in both the lyrics and melodies - Lewis is a supremely gifted songwriter whose catalogue is worth investigating.  Early in the show, at that all-important moment when a singer seizes their audience, Lewis presented back-to-back performances of “Paradox” and “Bloom” during which she did, indeed, take hold.  After the songlist had presented a series of spectacular covers, the storytelling became one hundred percent Lewis, as she didn’t just perform songs she has created (“Endless Summer,” “Mine For A Minute” and “Stars” all three being evening highlights), but discussed her vision of her art, her mission statement with her heart.  Crystal Lewis hasn’t just come to sing, hasn’t just come to tell stories - she is here healing.   Among the themes spoken of during her performance, Crystal Lewis spoke passionately about championing self-expression and advocacy, valuing one’s self and one’s path, and, to that end, Lewis has written a children’s book titled Claire Clementine Finds Her Voice.  The publication has an accompanying EP featuring her two final songs of the night “That’s What I’d Say” and “Love Does.”  It was a magnificent and highly personal way to bring her cabaret concert to a close, leaving a loving audience on their feet, cheering for more.  The exchange of energy between Lewis and the Laurie Beechman patrons was palpable and it was beautiful.  There isn’t any reason why lovers of live music and storytelling everywhere shouldn’t be flocking to see her in concert, for she is an enchanting entertainer, a benevolent being, and that rare thing - a true blue original.  Unique.  Unlike any other.   The next time she is in your town, get thee to the theater and listen to what she says.  Soak in this magic that doesn’t come along every day.

Find great shows to see on the Laurie Beechman website HERE.

Visit the Crystal Lewis website HERE.

Photos by Stephen Mosher