Review: JENN COLELLA Hip, Hot, and High-Caliber at 54 Below
Nicknamed Broadway's Favorite Lesbian, Jenn Colella is more like Broadway's Coolest Cat.
Last night, at the opening of her current eponymous show at 54 Below, Jenn Colella asked the crowd if there were any guests who were seeing her in concert for the first time, and there was a healthy burst of applause from the audience. This is a beautiful thing for a couple of reasons. First of all, everyone should see Jenn Colella in concert, a fact well known by those of us who see every (underline it) Jenn Colella show. Secondly, those of us who do see every show can remember what a thrill that first time is, and we love that for 
the new inductees. And, thirdly, having the Tony Award nominee’s numbers expand is a good, even a great thing. You see, Jenn Colella is one of the greats. She is one of the great actors, one of the great entertainers, one of the great women, and the opportunity to see her in action is as important as seeing those artists to whose show everyone flocks, artists whose shows people refuse to miss, artists like Barbra Streisand, Bette Midler, and the late greats like Tina Turner and Tony Bennett. The thing is, those famous four played the kind of venues where a seat in the auditorium meant being a mile away from the mic, but when Jenn Colella plays 54 Below, you get to be close enough to see the tears in her eyes during especially moving musical moments. That is the benefit of attending shows in so intimate a venue. The closeness of proximity is never more keenly felt than when La Colella bursts into the room to spend four full minutes hugging, singing to, and dancing with members of the audience. Jenn Colella connects. Her heart, her soul, her artistic nature demand it, and she succeeds, she passes with flying colors, she crosses the finish line in first place, every time.
When Broadway’s OG Captain Beverley Bass asked who was seeing her for the first time, this writer had the thrill of having three people at his table cheer. My own escort had only ever seen Jenn on the theatrical stage, while the charming couple sharing our table confessed beforehand that they flew up from Austin to see their Come From Away idol (fans of the film) live and in person. All three of my tablemates spent the night cheering, arms over their heads for applause breaks, and giddy from the joy. That is what I mean when I say that the regulars get a thrill from watching Colella freshmen come to the club. There is happiness all around - on the stage, at the table, in the room. The cost of a night out in Manhattan is most certainly worth all that joy.
For her new show at 54 Below, Jenn Colella has reached into the various drawers of her club act bureau dresser. There are radio hits, the sort found at her rock and roll concerts, there are musical theater leanings, like you might see at one of her Broadway shows, and there is queerness galore, which is the nature of her Pride month shows. Ms. Colella has created an amalgam of moods based on her life, her career, and her concerts - it’s sort of a ‘best of’ of Colella cabaret, which makes it a must-see for everyone.
Looking like a million bucks in a blue tuxedo that makes a boy wonder why he doesn’t look as good when he goes for that Esther Hoffman Howard meets Tom Jones vibe, Jenn Colella bounds about the room, dancing, jumping, jiving and grooving, as she serves up gender appropriate versions of “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” (“I need a woman who’ll take a chance on a love that burns hot enough to last”), and “It’s Raining Men” (“It’s raining 
femmes”), and straightforward covers of dance-inspiring hits like evening highlights “Valerie” and “Hard to Handle.” She keeps the crowd gyrating in their chairs, and sometimes shaking their booties in a standing position, but when it’s time to settle down and sit back for some musical storytelling, Colellas brings her A-est of Games with other highlights like the best version of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” you’ve ever heard (hands down), and a haunting, heart wrenching version of Sarah Bareilles’ “Gravity” beautifully performed with onstage vocalist Nikisha Williams. Bring along a hankie and an open heart because you’re going places where feelings are encouraged. Indeed, at the start of the program, Jenn Colella pronounces a wish to be present - her goal for the evening is to provide people with an opportunity to surrender and relax, which is a right true wish for anyone to bestow on people in this day and age; and surrender and relax we did, and so will the lucky audiences at tonight’s encore show (March 28, 7 pm, tickets HERE).
Other highlights in an evening of perfection include a stunning duet with Alexa Green from a musical Colella did a few years ago for a special audience member (no spoilers on this one, sorry), and, of course, a live performance of “Me and The Sky” which, alone, makes the price of a ticket and dinner worthwhile because (and it has to be said), seeing Jenn Colella sing the Come From Away song that she introduced is like being in the room to hear LaChanze sing “I’m Here” or Donna Murphy sing “Loving You” or Heather Headley sing “Easy as Life” or Kelli O’Hara sing “To Build a Home” or Randy Graff sing “You Can Always Count on Me.” These are our icons, they are our divas, they are the architects of modern-day musical theater, the women for whom the songs were written, the women we watched sing them in the theater, the ones we have listened to on the album over and over. But this time, you’re sitting four rows deep and seeing it happen right in front of you. Four rows, that’s as far back as the room goes at 54 Below. Jenn Colella, Me and the Sky, four rows. Ya hafta do it, man.
There is also, though, a portion of the show dedicated to the songs of Shaina Taub, and that is something really significant because Jenn Colella is maybe the best interpreter of Shaina Taub’s work there is. Maybe even better than Shaina Taub herself, and let me explain that, because Tony-winning Taub is a great entertainer in her own right, a stellar storyteller who has given (and continues to give) the world exceptional works of art to open our eyes and illuminate, which is what artists do best. But there is, for every .jpg?format=auto&width=1400 "Review: JENN COLELLA Hip, Hot, and High-Caliber at 54 Below")
songwriting composer, always an artist that is not their self, looking in from the outside, seeing facets of the story that come from the inspiration of not being the songwriter, of being a person into whose life the songwriter seems to have looked, seen something, thus bringing their own experience to life. Observe the manner with which Dionne Warwick brought to life the works of Burt Bacharach, or Bernadette Peters the compositions of Stephen Sondheim, or Melissa Errico the catalogue of Michel Legrand. Inasmuch as these women were mused-up by those creators, so is Jenn Colella by Shaina Taub. So being in the room for the one-two-three punch that is “Finish the Fight,” “Joyful Noise,” and the extraordinary “Room” is a moment that can only be gotten at a Jenn Colella show, which not only makes the show good, it makes it valuable.
In her efforts to connect with her audience in ways exciting and exceptional, Ms. Colella is aided mightily (and with seeming ease on all their parts) by a band that features Bassist Carl Carter, Drummer Adam Wolfe, Guitarist Nate Lueck, Reed player Kristy Norter, Violinist Caitlin Warbelow, aforementioned vocalists Alexa Green and Nikisha Williams, and Musical 
Director Chris Ranney at the piano. This is one great band, and they provide our genial gentlewoman with all the support she needs to relax and surrender to the music, the moment, and the multitudes of devotees who flood the basement every time she appears at 54 Below - that’s why her shows are always so dangnab good. She surrounds herself with the best. Remember when Andre De Shields said, “Surround yourself with people whose eyes light up when they see you coming”? That’s the Jenn Colella experience. Look at the band during the show. Look at the crowd during the performance. And look at The Colella during the evening. All eyes lit. To these well-experienced eyes, that’s what live entertainment looks like.
Jenn Colella and her band of merry music makers will play 54 Below on March 28th at 7 pm. Get tickets HERE.
Find Jenn Colella online HERE.
Photos by Stephen Mosher.
Reader Reviews
Videos