Review: Christine Andreas Soars in S'WONDERFUL at 54 Below

Christine Andreas’s S’Wonderful at 54 Below on July 30 and 31 was pure love. I saw the second night of the run on Friday July 31. The impetus for the show was Andreas wanting a balm to the ills of the world and cheer herself up in light of the horrible news of the past few years. She accomplished this with a brief musical history of hopeful, tuneful songs from the 1920s up to contemporary music, bringing us all the way from the Gershwins to Peter Allen with many stops along the way. She began with romantic ballads of yesteryear, firmly establishing feel-good vibes with a send-chills-down-your-spine rendition of “On a Clear Day.” Her full, rich and mature voice is reminiscent of the greats – she evoked Streisand’s cover of “On a Clear Day” while making the song her own, with her interpretation and instrumentation and arrangement of the song. She wove the oft-discarded verse, a favorite of mine, into the middle of the song.

Andreas had the audience wrapped around her finger from the very beginning. She was in fine form, accompanied on piano by her husband, Broadway songwriter Martin Silvestri, who also Music Directed the show. With a chemistry between singer and pianist that only 30-plus years together could produce, Silvestri transforms a rigid Steinway grand piano into a fluffy down pillow that catches and cradles every angelic crescendo, swaddling Andreas’s descents, before powerfully propelling her forward to the next verse.

Andreas is a masterful interpreter of song – in her hands, well-familiar verses like “A Wonderful Guy” (South Pacific) and “They Say It's Wonderful” (Annie Get Your Gun) feel new. Paired with Silvestri’s inventive instrumentations, she’s an unstoppable force. I especially admired Silvestri’s hand on a Gershwin medley that blended seamlessly from “S’Wonderful” into “Somebody Loves Me” into “Someone to Watch Over Me” to “Fascinating Rhythm” and “Embraceable You,” and more. Silvestri quoted the refrain to “I Got Rhythm” on the piano. Andreas memorably ended the Gershwin section by settling into a guest’s lap and singing “I Got a Crush on You” directly to them.

Andreas took a path down memory lane to World War II to see how people of her parents’ generation coped with difficult times back then by creating art like Oscar Hammerstein and Jerome Kern’s “The Last Time I Saw Paris,” which she sung a hauntingly beautiful rendition of.

The chemistry between Silvestri and Andreas was palpable. They sang a sweet duet on Mancini’s “Two for the Road,” sandwiched between “Moon River,” delivered heartfully by Andreas. I won’t go through the entire set list – I can only hope that if Andreas brings the show back to New York, you’ll go see it. It left this reviewer humming all week, and wishing that our generation would come up with a rallying cry for our times as unifying as Gershwins’ upbeat “Strike Up the Band.”

Andreas announced towards the end of the night that she’s recording a Christmas album to be released in December, to be titled I Remember Christmas after one of Silvestri’s songs that she released as a single last December. It deserves a place on your holiday gift list this year.

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Learn more about Christine Andreas, where to find her album when it’s released and her upcoming shows on her website at www.christineandreas.com.

See a full set of photos from S’Wonderful snapped by Conor Weiss here.

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