Review: SANTINO FONTANA At 54 Below A Good Choice

Santino Fontana returned to 54 Below last night with his eponymous club act that played the same room and same stage back in November of 2022.  And technically speaking it IS the same show… except that it’s not the same show.  It’s a different show every night because Fontana The Fabulous makes it a different show.  The Tony Award winner for Tootsie has twenty-five songs that he has prepared (he’s off book!  No music stand, no cheat sheets!) and a tray in which rest slips of paper with numbers that correspond with the songs he has prepared.  One by one, Mr. Fontana saunters out into the audience so that the patrons can pick the song that, next, he will perform.  This is not a setup.  There is no cheating.  This writer was given a set list and watched last night as Santino scrupulously played each song that was chosen, with the exception of one occasion when he opted out of ANOTHER ballad for a comedy number with suggestive overtones (and, truth be told, this writer was disappointed to miss the ballad, a personal favorite… but the naughty number did pay off, so no hard feelings).   The show, which garnered a rave review ten months ago from this same reporter (read it HERE), is as good now as it was then.  Indeed, it’s better because right now Santino Fontana is in rehearsals for a production of the rarely produced musical I CAN GET IT FOR YOU WHOLESALE and he has invited cast members for the show to perform at each performance (see the list below).  So, along with Santino Fontana and his eerily expansive vocal abilities, Cody Owen Stine and his prowess at the piano, and a setlist of beloved songs from musicals well-known, compositions from musicals less well-known, and the occasional novelty number or cabaret tune, last night’s audience was treated to the wonderful Rebecca Naomi Jones singing a song from WHOLESALE.  All this and the Fontana whimsy, too - it was truly an embarrassment of riches.

This review of the Santino Fontana show comes with this writer’s highest recommendation… but no details.  I feel like it would spoil the fun for the audiences who might attend one of the remaining performances to have even the slightest inkling of what the possible song choices might be, or what some of the tricks are, lurking up Santino’s sleeve, and it certainly would not do to give away the secrets of the stories.  Suffice it to say that this is a production that is to be relished, and relished over and over.  Last year, again, with a setlist in front of me, I went home disappointed because Santino Fontana did not sing my favorite Sondheim song.  Last night, it was the third song performed.  After that, I could have gone home a happy man and a happy fan.  But I stayed for the whole show, sated, happy, and even a little jealous of the audiences to enjoy the one-man variety show that is Santino Fontana at 54 Below.

Don’t question it:  just go.

Reservations to the Santino Fontana show can be made HERE.  The guest artists to appear will be Sarah Steele on September 12th, Julia Lester on September 13th, and Greg Hildreth on September 14th.

Santino Fontana has Instagram HERE.

I Can Get It For You Wholesale plays CSC this fall and HERE is all the information.

Photos by Stephen Mosher