Review: James Beaman Comes Out With LIVED EXPERIENCE at The Triad

In his new musical cabaret, James Beaman talks with Maestro David Maiocco about a period of time in the Nineteen Nineties that he found to be particularly magical.  When the two longtime colleagues and close friends had this discussion, their eyes well and truly lit up, and it could be seen from the stage, into the entire house.  And well those eyes should have lit up, because it was, indeed, a magical time in New York City.  It was a magical time on Broadway, a magical time in gay culture, and a magical time in cabaret.  And James Beaman was a big part of it.

Now, he is reliving that time in LIVED EXPERIENCE.

James Beaman has not been a performer on the cabaret stage in twenty years.  He has been a working actor on the theatrical stage, all over this country, after leaving his life in cabaret for something better (and, let's be honest, going from darkened fifty-five-seat cabaret rooms to touring with the Broadway musical Spamalot is, indeed, something better).  But, of late, Mr. Beaman has been back in cabaret, only this time from the director's chair.  Some of his clients have been cabaret stalwarts like Sierra Rein, Alexandra de Suze, and Goldie Dver, among others.  Somehow, though, James Beaman got the wild idea that he should put his money where his mouth is and show his clients that he will not ask them to do something that he wouldn't do with them, and LIVED EXPERIENCE was created.

In this new show that harkens back to a past even further back than Beaman's days as one of cabaret's greatest female impressionists, a mood has been created, a vibe has been recaptured, and the audience is treated to the kind of old-time nightclub acts that played places like Paris, Berlin, Vegas, Atlantic City, and, eventually, the television sets of the Sixties, the Seventies, and, even a few years of the Eighties.  Mr. Beaman has recreated an era when performers were called entertainers, and their shows read like three-act plays, and, guess what, so does LIVED EXPERIENCE.  In Act One, James Beaman bursts through, all glitz and tits, with big numbers and even bigger heels, with taps and terpsichore, and with innuendo and insinuation.  It's all champagne bubbles and brightness.  In Act Two, Beaman covers current events, changing attitudes, and vitriolic opinions on everything from trigger warnings to woke society.  It’s all three fingers of Scotch in a Baccarat tumbler.  And in Act Three, Jamie lets his hair down and tells it like it is, sharing the truth about his pandemic experience, the death of his best friend, his mother, Mickey Coburn, after a battle with dementia, and his staunch refusal to not let the youth of society tell him that his turn is over.  It’s all Espresso and Cognac.   It's a lot to cram into eighty minutes in a cabaret room, but he makes it happen and he makes it work, using everything from an EXQUISITE band that sounds like an orchestra to prop comedy, costume changes, and no fewer than four different pairs of shoes.  James Beaman had a vision for what his musical cabaret could be and he did not compromise, and that vision was achieved.

Like those magical times in the New York of the Nineties, there was another time in our history that was magical, and it is that era of entertainment that was in Jamie's mind and on his drafting table when he created this program.  It was that time referred to just above when the variety shows and nightclub acts were more presentational than the cabaret shows of later years when artists would sit on a stool and do group therapy while singing the songs of Carole King and Billy Joel.  The men and women of this era made those shows what they were, and, as a gay man working in show business (and one-time female impressionist), James Beaman is acutely aware of those performers, and that awareness shows in every moment of LIVED EXPERIENCE.  His opening number is solid Bette Midler and Harlettes, his tap routine is straight-up Liza Minnelli, and his social commentary conducted while singing and dancing as Shirley MacLaine to the letter.  But even though Beaman once wore a dress when standing on the stage, he is not a gay man who wants to be a woman.  He is a man and a working actor, and, as such, he reminds one of the men from that era in entertainment: Rip Taylor, Paul Lynde, Peter Allen, Wayland Flowers.  One might notice that I did not say Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, and (James Beaman's idol) Sammy Davis Jr.  That is because Misters Martin, Sinatra, and Davis did not have to contend with wanting to wear sequins and platform heels and not being able to - they wore their tuxedos.  Misters Taylor, Lynde, Allen, and Flowers were gay men at a time when they were not allowed to be openly gay... and, yet, their acts and demeanor did nothing to hide their proclivities.  They simply were gay at a time when being gay was still criminal in some states in this country.  They did not hide their flamboyance.  They did not hide their true nature.  They went about their business and their art and their audiences followed, and they didn’t talk about the rest.  In LIVED EXPERIENCE, James Beaman need not hide any part of himself.  Because of the changes in time and society, all queer people are being their authentic selves (even in the face of a return to blatant bigotry in the world) and in his hybrid cabaret/club act/variety show, James Beaman is being one hundred percent authentic to himself and his artistry, and that is the most important part of any cabaret: authenticity.  

One of the other things that is authentic about James Beaman is that he is fifty-eight years old.  That is not an ungallant remark.  James Beaman celebrated his birthday at last night's performance and he spent a lot of time talking about his age, about getting older as a man, as a gay man, as an actor, and all that comes with that, good and bad.  It is not masked, it is not disguised, it is in the room:  getting older is presenting James Beaman with some roadblocks.  He is navigating those roadblocks, learning to adapt his body, his voice, and his heart to those roadblocks... but NOT his attitude.  A fighter as scrappy as The Little Rascals, James Beaman will not go, as the saying says, gently into the dark night.  He has created LIVED EXPERIENCE not just for himself, not just for the entertainment factor for himself and his fans, he has created it to say that he has been here, he is still here, and so are you, and so are you, and so are you, and so are all of the people who are feeling maybe a little invisible, maybe a little forgotten, maybe a little dismissed by a youth-obsessed society that doesn't appreciate what it has in its gay granddaddies and women of advanced glamour, in its more seasoned pros and wizened world travelers.  He has created his club act to wag his finger (in a brilliant Gilbert and Sullivan parody he wrote himself) or to open his arms (with an uplifting "Why Try To Change Me Now?").  James Beaman is reintroducing himself to a community that adored him twenty years ago, and an art form that he mastered, only in character, not as himself.  You see, James Beaman has never been on the cabaret stage as himself.  This was his coming out party.  

During that magical time in the Nineties, James Beaman made his mark in shows in which he portrayed legendary leading ladies Marlene Dietrich and Lauren Bacall.  Both shows and both women were created to absolute perfection and Jamie was a star on the rise when he walked away to become an actor of Shakespeare's works.  Before he did walk away, he won a MAC Award (with Goldie Dver) for a Leslie Bricusse tribute show that was all characters and vignettes.  He was never presented as himself.  Those years of Bacall and Deitrich are showcased in LIVED EXPERIENCE by way of a film montage (played during a costume change) that had every person in the audience who knew him back when sighing, clapping, smiling at the sight of cherished moments from the past, of photos of James Beaman meeting the famous after a performance of BLACK MARKET MARLENE, or of video footage of James Beaman stamping about the stage as Lauren Bacall.  That magical time was relived for all in those four minutes of video.

But this can be a magical time, too.  

James Beaman has shown that this aging Zaddy has life in his legs, yet.  He dreamed of something with LIVED EXPERIENCE and he made it happen.  And it was good, no, great, seeing him back on the stage again, after all this time, though this writer would like to offer that his next show should be one that will focus on his life and his relationship with his mother.  Listening to him talk about her at last night's performance (on his birthday, no less), watching the way he, particularly, came to life in those moments was, in and of itself, magic.  Indeed, for all the entertainment factor of his amazing duets with David Maiocco (a hilarious "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist" with ALL the harmonies) and the letter-perfect execution of Noel Coward's "Why Must The Show Go On?" the most resonant moments of LIVED EXPERIENCE were the ones in which James Beaman was standing in his truth.  Dressed simply in head-to-toe black (with sequins, natch), and talking to the crowd about the "All" of it, about his Mama, about getting older, about what he has lived through, and about how he survived it - it was beautiful.  And he did it with frankness, not a lot of self-pity (the way these things can get) or sorrow (the way these things can get).  He was very (you should excuse the expression) straight about it.  Jamie Beaman is hopeful.  And Jamie Beaman is grateful (his thank you speech was an entire number in itself).  And Jamie Beaman has people to support him (the audience was chock a block with cabaret greats) as he makes the transition back onto the stage, only this time as himself.  Not Dietrich.  Not Bacall.  Not any one of a number of characters.  This is Jamie's moment.  It's going to be magical to watch.

 

The LIVED EXPERIENCE creative team:

Writer and Director: James Beaman

Choreographer and director consultant:  Ann Cooley

Musical Director and Arranger: David Maiocco

Bassist:  Matt Scharfglass

Drummer:  David Silliman

Background vocalists:  Alexandra DeSuze, Goldie Dver, Sierra Rein

Visit the Triad website HERE.

THIS is the James Beaman website and HERE is the David Maiocco Instagram page.

  About Conor Weiss

Conor Weiss is a NY-based actor/director and occasional stage manager who has been around the Cabaret scene since 1994 - 2003 when he first joined the staff as a technical director at Judy's' and at Danny's Skylight room. During these years and the years after the closing of Judy's and Danny's, he subbed in at many other clubs at one time or another. He has always had a deep love for the American Songbook and for cabaret. Between his time in the booth and time in the audience has probably been present for a few thousand cabaret shows over the last 30 years and looks forward to more!

Find Conor Weiss on Facebook HERE.

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