Review: Rosie Webber's THE SHOW THAT GOT AWAY at The Green Room 42

Rosie Webber's The Show That Got Away began with nothing but her voice. Offstage, singing a cappella, she floated out the familiar invitation: "Forget your troubles, come on get happy..." Writer-director Danny Salles made the inspired choice to let the audience hear Webber before seeing her. Many in the sold-out crowd on July 30 at The Green Room 42 could have sworn Judy Garland herself was about to walk onstage.

Instead, Webber entered in a snazzy gold textured suit, paired with a black top, immediately making it clear she wasn't a Judy Garland impersonator reproducing familiar gestures, mannerisms, and vocal tics we know and love. Rather, she's a formidable vocalist who channels Garland's emotional spirit, describing Judy not as someone to imitate but rather as "a partner in crime."

The warmly received performance marked Webber's New York City debut. Admitting she was terrified but grateful, she called the evening "a dream come true." When she asked how many audience members had discovered her through social media, roughly three-quarters of the house raised their hands. Launching into "I Feel a Song Coming On," she seemed to embody every lyric: "...a melody full of the laughter...love and glory, hallelujah..." Like Garland, it's not simply Webber's vocal sound that's evocative, it's her ability to communicate joy that's inseparable from perseverance and pain. Such emotional contradictions invite an audience to root for her, and they did throughout the evening.

Mash-ups are one of cabaret's greatest pleasures, and Webber, alongside musical director Matt Baker, delivered several memorable ones. The first paired Lerner and Loewe's "Almost Like Being in Love" from Brigadoon with Rodgers and Hart's "This Can't Be Love" from The Boys from Syracuse. The pairing perfectly captured Webber's buoyant stage presence: "What a day this has been, what a rare mood I'm in..." She radiated gleeful enthusiasm while standing at the threshold of what felt like a breakout moment in her career.

Another inspired pairing blended Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Ten Minutes Ago" from Cinderella with "The Boy Next Door" from Meet Me in St. Louis, full of hopeful romantic anticipation. The evening wasn't limited to Judy’s standards. Instead, Webber chose songs she imagined Garland herself might have loved. Her rendition of Don McLean's "Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)" unexpectedly felt less like a portrait of Vincent van Gogh than of Garland herself. By the closing lyric, the song seemed to have transformed into an elegy for Judy, hanging in the air with heartfelt pathos as though it were being heard for the first time.

Webber also proved herself an engaging storyteller. Her tales of working aboard cruise ships—learning the unwritten rules, falling for a bisexual co-star, drinking too much, and being fired more than once—were delivered with sharp comic timing before bursting into the spirited mash-up of George and Ira Gershwin's "Who Cares?" from Of Thee I Sing with "I Don't Care" from In the Good Old Summertime. One lasting gift from those cruise-ship years was meeting her fiancé, Christopher Lara, who played guitar in the evening's excellent four-piece band alongside drummer Daniel Glass, bassist Dylan Shamat, and Baker at the piano.

Another standout mash-up paired the aching "As Long As He Needs Me" from Oliver! with "The Man That Got Away." Drawing on heartbreak, dashed ambitions, and the humiliation of being fired and sent home, Webber found an emotional intersection where her own depression and regret rivaled Garland's. The extended applause that followed suggested the audience felt that connection just as deeply.

When Webber introduced an original song, "All About You," written with Christopher Lara, I never expected that it could compete with the great American songbook she had been singing. But the upbeat jazzy number proved one of the evening's freshest surprises, especially considering it was the first time they’d performed it live. An audience member immediately shouted, "Do it again!" Without missing a beat, Webber laughed, "Come back tomorrow."

Imagining how naturally Stephen Sondheim's songs might have suited Garland, Webber offered "Anyone Can Whistle." Sung through the emotional lens of Judy, the lyric felt uncannily personal: "What's hard is simple, What's natural comes hard. Maybe you could show me, How to let go, Lower my guard, Learn to be free, Maybe if you whistle, Whistle for me.”  Once again, Webber's gift for connecting to the lyric's vulnerability elevated the number beyond homage.

"I Got the Sun in the Morning" from Annie Get Your Gun acknowledged Garland's resilience through hardship before Webber quietly shifted deeper into her own. Speaking openly about her struggles with alcohol—she is now two years sober—she sat at the piano to accompany herself for Billie Eilish's "What Was I Made For?" The performance became one of the evening's emotional peaks, tracing the uncertainty of recovery before blossoming seamlessly into "Over the Rainbow." Her accomplished piano playing, combined with her soaring vocals, brought the audience to its feet.

Having traveled through darkness, Webber returned to the light with the Garland/Barbra Streisand duet "Happy Days Are Here Again" and "Get Happy." I've heard this celebrated pairing recreated recently at 54 Below, Carnegie Hall, and Joe's Pub, but this rendition topped the others when Webber's mother, Mary Beth Webber, joined her onstage. Their obvious affection and musical chemistry made the number the evening's purest delights with a second standing ovation.

She followed with James F. Hanley's "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart," a joyful declaration that reflected both her meteoric rise on social media and a New York debut that places her undoubtedly among today's most leading cabaret performers. Oh, and yes, another standing ovation.

For her scheduled encore, "Come Rain or Come Shine," Webber delivered an ending all her own, sustaining an electrifying final note that sent the audience back to its feet once again. And the applause simply wouldn't end. Returning for a second encore—unrehearsed, she admitted—she led the room in a jubilant sing-along of "The Trolley Song" from Meet Me in St. Louis. It was the kind of spontaneous finale an audience will remember long after the last note had ended. The air was electric as if all knew they had witnessed a star is born. I’ve never witnessed five standing ovations within an hour-long cabaret. Here she is—watch Rosie Webber soar!

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Learn more about the singer at www.rosiewebber.com

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