Review: BILLY RECCE IS 'BACK IN THE BASEMENT' for the New Writers series at Feinstein's/54 Below

January 23rd, 2020 at Feinstein's/54 Below

Billy Recce is doing well for himself and as a performer. With a musical still running and another show at 54 Below, he's making being a new writer in New York look easy. Of course, it's not. But, don't let his carefree charm fool you either. He's a dedicated writer who has put together an incredible amount of material in a very short time. That adds up to a few memorable tunes and new shows in the works that scream potential. His large cast of characters showcased their talents well, but even then, it was a comfortable blend of lyrics, piano, and actors' vocal cords.

To be honest, it seems like he still has one super well-done song, "Go Into Finance." It's catchy and realistic. I can hear my grandma singing the same advice, "your solo is pitchy and you came in four measures late." It helped that Paige Turner was on point on this song, and likely had the best all-around performance of the evening, combining vocals, acting, and style to a song with plenty of opportunities to take advantage of "Jewish Grandmother Voice." That being said, Recce does have songwriting down to an art now. Songs like "Dimes," The Cobblestone streets of Manhattan," and "Don't Cross the Queen," were of a similar combination of cultural awareness, sarcasm, and irreverence to create a sense of crescendo within the emotional arc of the show. It was especially relevant to hear old lyrics about Megan Markle alongside the line, "the world just went bananas for Diana."

The show really fell into a groove when Recce showed off a new musical project about Heidi Fleiss. Lauren Robinson, Lena Skeele, Sarah Kleist, and Mia Pak, combined to create a new sound with each coming song while demonstrating that Recce's show tunes have wit. They appear to be either funny with a serious undertone or serious with a comic undertone. As evidenced by the line in "Streets of LA" about coming to the city, "All I wanna do is dance and all I wanna do is party," and the later line in "No Sympathy, "There's no woman or man alive, you need in your life to survive." And even then the tone of the musical is unclear when setting "My (Much Much) Older Man," a song about finding love with a "short life span and a big expense account," against the melancholic, "Cage Song." With the potential to be my favorite of Recce's, the song drifts thoughtfully away and back to the concept of singing from a cage, "I've been singing a cage song for years...but nobody hears."

Keep on top of Billy Recce. He's prolific, and I like to think that means good things for the future. He was joined by Jimmy Bie on Guitar, Sean Cortese on Bass, Ashley Everhart on Sax, and Adam Mastrocola on drums.