Photos: Stunning TOM KITT & FRIENDS 54 Below Residency Comes To Close

Tom Kitt, the award-winning creator of many musical theater scores, spent the last week at 54 Below presenting a series of four concerts tracing his career in (mostly) chronological order, from humble beginnings on the first night right up to an eye on the future on night four.  The gentleman regularly sells out his concerts at the Tony Award-bestowed venue, and this residency, Tom Kitt & FRIENDS, was no exception.  This photographer attended all four shows and can, happily, report that the audiences flooded the basement, as did the talent and material of high quality, making for a set of shows the nature of which the cabaret and concert aficionados of New York City regularly seek out.  For this fourth and final concert on Saturday night, May 3rd, Mr. Kitt was joined by (in order of appearance) Jonathan Dokuchitz, Anna Bakun, Andrew Keenan-Bolger, Sara Chase, Alysha Deslorieux, Ariana DeBose, Liz Leclerc, Sandra Okuboyejo, and Michael Kitt.  Whereas the first three concerts in the series saw Kitt joined by a greatly proficient band, for his closing performance, he was a one-man band behind the piano, as he and his guests performed songs from new productions in the works like a Bugs Bunny musical, a show about a fading rock star, an adaptation of the film You Hurt My Feelings, a Naked Gun musical, a refreshed version of Applause, and a VERY enticing new piece titled Williamsburg.  The cast of guest artists was in rare form, with each performance rising to the occasion in an effort to showcase the variety and depth of Tom's storytelling, and, in an extremely special moment, Mr. Kitt's son, Michael, closed out the concert with a song from the lovely Superhero, seen off-Broadway in 2019.  It was the right way to bring the week of performances to a proper close, and, if there's anything this musical theater devotee learned, after attending all four performances, it is that Tom Kitt is, clearly, my favorite present-day creator of musical theater.  If/when he returns to 54 Below with another array of artists for similar shows, one might offer that this was the residency to see in 2025.   

Please enjoy the photo essay below, created exclusively for BroadwayWorld, as well as the photo flashes for NIGHT ONE, NIGHT TWO, and NIGHT THREE.

Find great shows to see on the 54 Below website HERE.

Visit the Tom Kitt website HERE.

Photos by Stephen Mosher