Review: Nichelle Lewis Charmed In An Intimate Performance at 54 Below

On Friday, February 21st, Nichelle Lewis made her New York City solo cabaret debut at 54 Below to a highly enthusiastic crowd of friends, family, and fans. Fresh off her acclaimed leading performance as Sarah in Ragtime at New York City Center Encores! and as Dorothy in The Wiz on Broadway, Lewis created a lovely evening filled with songs across the musical spectrum, gospel, and soul favorites, and even some new original music she wrote herself.

Lewis started strong, engaging the audience immediately by asking them to sing along with the opening numbers, “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” and “I Will Survive.” These hits had the audience enthusiastically singing, and clapping along (but who, other than her friends from the theater including Melody Betts that were in the audience, could really follow along with her vocals?), immediately getting the energy up. 

Throughout the night, even as she switched gears between music styles and moods, Lewis held the audience’s focus with stories of her career and life. Not everyone who wants to can make their living as a professional singer, and Lewis was excellent at making herself relatable, and even approachable as she sometimes talked back and forth with the audience. Who can’t relate to the frustrating and boring day job at Crate & Barrel, to the repetitive playlists you deal with as a wedding singer.

Lewis’ charm and passion shone through even as the show hit a couple of speed bumps– likely due to some restructuring as her guitarist/boyfriend was apparently snowed in–leading to some new song arrangements. And frankly, the worst that happened was that she didn’t quite make it through her whole setlist likely due to whatever pacing was off. And this was a shame because she’s an entirely amazing singer, and I would’ve liked to hear even more.  

If you’ve never heard her, Lewis' range is phenomenal. In addition to the opening songs she covered things like “Almost There” from Disney’s The Princess and the Frog, Carol King’s “Way Over Yonder,” and “He’s No Good” from The Life. Lewis also, noticeably nervous about this, performed an original piece she wrote “Out There,” which she performed with none of the vulnerability of her introduction and giving a beautiful and strong performance.

With the resume Lewis has a dazzling musical performance is to be expected, but she also proved to be an engaging storyteller and show woman making her a wonderful performer to spend an evening with. 

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Follow Nichelle Lewis on Instagram here.

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