Review: Ariana DeBose Makes Her Mark with Cafe Carlyle Debut Run

Ariana DeBose, a shining star of the stage and screen, made her Café Carlyle debut this week with a knockout show. DeBose is known for work including Disney’s Wish and a turn as Maria in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story that drew international acclaim (and won a scad of awards). The limited run ends on Sunday October 3. If you have the chance, you really should go see her.

DeBose made her entrance dancing through a crowd of fans as the band began playing. She opened with a soft, sultry rendition of the Dean Martin classic “Sway.” The evening was organized around songs that move her, running the gamut from classic Broadway to a song she originated in Disney’s Wish. If there was a theme of the night, it was that Ariana DeBose doesn’t let the world tell her “no” anymore. She was unapologetically herself, starting off the show by wishing the crowd a happy Hispanic Heritage Month and immediately kicking off her heels to get comfortable onstage. The time flew by watching DeBose. It’s hard to believe that anyone told this radiant woman–with a voice rivaling the best of the best–that she wasn’t good enough for anything. The evening was drawn together with a subtle thread of the story behind her path to success. One of the most touching stories, in my opinion, was the time when she moved to New York to make it as a dancer and brought Stephen Schwartz’s “Meadowlark,” a song she loved, along to her auditions, until someone told her, “Oh sweetie, that’s a singer’s song” and she got the hint to stay in her lane–for a while. She finally got the chance to play the character that sings that song in an off-Broadway production of The Baker’s Wife last year, a career triumph that she underscored by flawlessly singing it at the Carlyle. The song is like a one-act play, highlighting  DeBose’s strengths as singer and actor alike.

DeBose has more than just the voice of an angel; she has charisma, and her pure, raw relatability, vulnerability, indefatigable spirit and sense of humor were on full display, giving depth to her self-assured and confident persona. She talked movingly about how ever since she moved to New York to pursue theater, she’d dreamed of performing at the Carlyle, but didn’t think it was for people like her – but here she was, performing on the venerable stage with “braids, an undercut and no shoes.” I don’t want to spoil the evening, but this was in every way a perfect show. She was clearly having the time of her life, and it was infectious. She got the audience dancing and bopping in their seats on a joyful “Last Dance.” One of my favorite moments of the night was a cover of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way,” orchestrated in DeBose’s style, and sung so genuinely and with such originality that you’d think it was written just for her.

Accompanying her was a fantastic band: Alex Tremblay on bass, Mike Bono on guitar, Norman Paul Edwards Jr. on drums and Mark G. Meadows on piano. They each got a chance to solo and show off their stuff, with DeBose charmingly dancing along during the musical interludes. Café Carlyle itself was a lovely setting and complement. DeBose talked about how part of what she’d been looking forward to about the night was connecting with people in an intimate space like the this. With a superb fine dining menu, it’s a lovely place for a date night or a special night out.

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Tickets to see Ariana DeBose through October 3 are available on Cafe Carlyle's website here. Dinner reservations are offered between 6:30pm and 7:30pm, with the performance beginning at approximately 8:45pm.

Read an interview with DeBose about the show here.

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