Review: Nicolas King Next Level With THE BIRTHDAY CONCERT at The Laurie Beechman

Last night Nicolas King threw himself a birthday party, and EVERYBODY came.  It was Standing Room Only at the Laurie Beechman Theatre as the MAC Award-winning cabaret artist presented THE BIRTHDAY CONCERT in honor of his 35th trip around the sun; and to mark the occasion, Nicolas King went out there a cabaret artist and came back a cabaret star.  Now, let’s be honest about this:  these days, the word star gets thrown around too much.  So do the words legend and icon and a handful of others - all good words that are tossed into the air as easily as hello and goodbye, the result being that the power of the words is diminishing.  Nevertheless, Nicolas King (a man with a long history of excellence in the performing game) stepped up onto the stage of The Beechman for his first-ever solo show in the venue, and delivered a performance that takes him to a new level.  This is coming from a writer who has seen almost every new show King has done in New York since August of 2019 (scheduling conflicts cost me three new King shows), this is coming from someone who already holds the gentleman in high esteem, so it is no form of hyperbole when I say that this is a new Nicolas King, and that it is time for his name to be mentioned alongside the names of the great male entertainers of cabaret and concert, names like Bobby Darin, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr.  It would be nice to include some modern-day male entertainers on that list, but none seem to embody the verve, the energy, the pizzaz that King brings to his performances; as wonderful as the other gentlemen who spring to mind are, none of them seem to eat the stage, the air, the Great American Songbook with quite the same ferocity as Nicolas King.  Nicolas King is in a class all his own.  And last night, he went to the head of the class.

For his birthday concert, Nicolas King invited his friend and frequent Musical Director, Billy Stritch, to share the stage with him, and, for eighty scant minutes, the duo demonstrated the difference between singing with a Musical Director and singing with a partner, the difference between singing with a Musical Director and singing with a friend, the difference between singing with a Musical Director and singing with a brother.   Mister King has sung with many different artists providing the musical accompaniment for his vocal prowess, and each and every one of them has been equal to the task.  But the partnership of Billy Stritch and Nicolas King (which has been brewing for a while) has reached its full bloom.  There is a chemistry between them that can be neither bought nor taught, a symbiotic kinesis that elevates the proceedings, effectively changing the energy in the air.  This is a partnership that yields not only exquisite musical offerings, but in-real-time pithy banter and genuine conversation (and palpable affection).  It’s something akin to a voluble ping-pong match with musical underscoring.  This writer predicts they will come to be known as one of the all-time great show business pairings.

The Birthday Concert brought to the spotlight a lot of Nicolas King’s history.  There were tales told of his tenure in show business, stories shared of the people with whom he has walked and worked, reminiscences recounted of backstage experiences, and all of them presented with an accompanying musical monologue.  But there were new experiences and compositions rising to the top to match the man that Nicolas is today, many of them casting a light into what promises to be a satisfying chapter in King’s artistic trajectory.  Observe the discussions of friends and colleagues like Liza Minnelli and Mike Renzi, both of whom have been massively important to Nico’s past, and how he works in “Old Friends” (a song Minnelli often sang in her concerts) to comment on the packed house of pals come to cheer him on, or the spectacular Cy Coleman medley arranged by Renzi that offers Billy and Nicolas a wealth of opportunities for delicious harmonies and musical storytelling that is both gleeful and heartfelt.  (An entire evening of Cy Coleman by King and Stritch is something about which one should dream  #bighint .)  There were discussions of Broadway’s Beauty and The Beast, in which King played Mrs. Potts’ son, Chip, that led to a performance of a new song for Nicolas - the ballad “A Change In Me,” written for Toni Braxton, who replaced on Broadway as Belle.  Nicolas remembered listening to Andrea McArdle sing the song every night, just before claiming the song as his own in a WOW moment in the show.  We’ve all heard Nicolas King sing the standards and the jazz cuts and the show tunes, but this song was written for a pop singer, and when Nicolas played the song last night, his vocals were those of a radio recording artist, a pop hit performer, a Top Forty creator.  Never before has this writer and Nicolas King devotee heard the man sing like this.  It is a new sound and a new vibe, and a most welcome one.  It was a revelation and a major score for the night.  

Another score for the evening was another new song for King, who told the crowd he wanted to sing the song “Two For The Road” just because it’s one of his favorites, and since it is his birthday, he deserves to sing it just because it is one of his favorites.  There is a stillness in Nicolas now, a strength, and it came out a couple of times during the performance - once during “A Change In Me” and once during this Mancini/Mercer classic.  The emotional commitment to his performance of “Two For The Road” filled every note sung, every word emitted, every sentence expressed.  At a certain point during the act, Nicolas mentioned that Barbra Streisand is “my queen!” and this came, literally, moments after I wrote the word Barbra on the setlist the club provided me with.  I wrote the Lady’s name next to the title “Two For The Road” because King’s performance of the song reminded me of a moment in my youth, when I was thirteen years old and listening to a Barbra Streisand record, and my mother walked in the room and said, “See, Stevie, this is what I was talking about the other day - this is the difference between someone just singing a song, and someone singing it WITH EMOTION.”  I think my mother (and Miss Streisand) would approve mightily of Nicolas King’s rendition of “Two For The Road,” which was stunning - the song needs to become a permanent addition to his repertoire.  

It is a Herculean task to try to list other highlights in the performance of The Birthday Concert because the musical cabaret was sheer perfection from start to finish.  But it is easy to comment on the chill electricity of the “I Won’t Grow Up/I’ve Got No Strings” mash-up (by Mr. Renzi) or on the savage style shown during the “Something Better” medley (by Mr. Stritch) or on the assertive showmanship of both “Mr. Paganini” and “Close Your Eyes” (the latter being a definite eye-opener).  This was one of the most exciting nights in cabaret this writer has witnessed in a while, and it must have been for the audience, too, because there were three or four mid-show standing ovations - sometimes it was one person, sometimes two, and sometimes it was a gang of people, but the crowd was on their feet, and they there a handful of times, and it wasn’t just because they love Nicolas, and it wasn’t just because they were friends, it was because he was ON.  FIRE.  Everything about him has grown, has evolved, has emerged as a thirty-five-year-old full of confidence and charisma, power and profundity.  And, by the way, class, as evidenced by his insistence on having Billy do a solo spot (a Brazilian song called “Sails”) that left the audience cheering in appreciation (no surprise there).  That generosity and consideration is the sign of a fine friendship, which is what the evening was all about.  Although billed as a birthday celebration for Nicolas King, the concert at The Beechman last night was a celebration of friendship, an occasion of love.  Just before closing out the night with a version of “You’ve Got A Friend” that savored more of a rock concert than a cabaret, Nico said he planned this night in order to “celebrate with my favorite people.”   Well, he got his wish.  And the people got theirs:  a wish to watch their favorite in action, and in his best life.  And THAT is a birthday gift we can all celebrate and appreciate.

Nicola King turns 35, officially, tomorrow, on July 26th.  Send him a birthday greeting on Instagram HERE or on Facebook HERE and visit his website HERE.

Billy Stritch has a website HERE and is performing his Tony Bennett Centeniary show at 54 Below on August 2nd and 3rd.  Get tickets HERE.

THIS is the main page of the Laurie Beechman Theatre.

Photos by Stephen Mosher

Reader Reviews

To post a comment, you must register and login.

Need more Cabaret Theatre News in your life?
Sign up for all the news on the Summer season, discounts & more...