Review: THE BEST OF ANN HAMPTON CALLAWAY Blows Away 54 Below Crowd

The roof was fully raised last night by orchestra, headliner, and audience alike when Ann Hampton Callaway returned to 54 Below with her new show THE BEST OF Ann Hampton Callaway.  Callaway, more regularly known as the eighth wonder of the world, actually IS the best, so the process of selecting what would end up in her (extremely generous) ninety-minute show must have left the Lady on the horns of a dilemma, but she has chosen wisely, and this new production is an hour and a half of breathtaking musical entertainment, laidback hilarity, profound conversation, and memories galore.  As she escorts the people through the decades, the albums, the live shows, the people, and the emotions, AHC proves, once again, why she is in demand, why she has always been in demand, and why the people will never stop showing up for the shows.  There is only Ann Hampton Callaway.  She is an original, she is a marvel, and she is a genius, even though she insists that the genius on the stage is her Musical Director, Tedd Firth, but two geniuses are better than one, aren’t they?  

Opening her show by parading through the crowd with her arms up, diva style, AHC allowed the waves of love and applause to wash over her, as the people welcomed her to the stage, where she, Firth, Dean Johnson (Bass), and Tim Horner (Drums) launched into a perfect rendition of “Our Love Is Here To Stay,” one that isn’t like any rendition you’ve ever heard before.  That’s one of the great things about an Ann Hampton Callaway show - you’re going to hear the songs you love.  And they’re going to sound like the songs you love.  Until they don’t.  You’re going to be able to sing along.  Until you can’t.  Because Ann Hampton Callaway has a way of preserving the author’s original intent while giving you something new.  What’s more comfortable than something you know, and what’s more thrilling than something new?   This is the way it is with every song performed in this new production.  That opening song is swingy and jazzy and groovy, and you are enjoying this old friend, and then comes the break, when the musicians perform their section of the arrangement - including AHC, using her voice like any variety of horn instruments, air-horn action included.  It’s new and it’s exciting and it’s jaw-dropping.  Follow up numbers like “Fever” and “Misty” retain the feel and the intention of the original compositions, the original arrangements, but Callaway uses her own interpretive skills (and some custom lyrics) to make the listening experience new and exciting and jaw-dropping.   No mere show of covers is this (though those can be fun), this is a tribute show to the songs, the songwriters, the original artists, the artist on this stage, and the art of being an individual.  AHC is content, nay, intent to do things her way, in clever parlance not made up by me, the Calla-way, and that is the way it ought to be.

Weaving the stories of the shows from whence cometh the evening’s selections, Ann draws the audience attention to the women who have inspired her - not because this is a theme show about women singer-songwriters, but because being inspired by women singer-songwriters is a part of the AHC field of interest, the AHC mission statement, even the AHC genetic makeup.  Ann is well-known for her theme shows, many of which have been about these women artists, but the source of those theme shows is the mere fact of their having inspired her, of her having admired them, of her wish to investigate, to absorb, to honor their work and their impact.  Naturally enough, that informs this musical smorgasbord, so there is some Peggy Lee, there is some Joni Mitchell, there is some Linda Ronstadt, there is some Sarah Vaughan, there is some Ella Fitzgerald, there is some Carole King.  There is more than some Barbra Streisand because La Callaway has had a significant association with The Greatest Star over the years.  This makes for a spectacular setlist, and AHC does not disappoint - not her audience, nor the gods of the divas.  Everything and everyone is as right as rain.  

With her usual balance of dry humor, mass flirting, fact sharing, and inspirational leading, Ann bridges the songs in her show with mesmerizing rhetoric that makes a person want to applaud the monologues, as well as the music.  But it is in the music where the most magic is to be mined.  With otherworldly vocals (through technique, styling, and birth-given beauty), Ann presents a heartwrenching “Desperado,” a floor-pounding “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” and an undulating “Black Coffee,” but this writer’s personal favorites have to be her “Tracks of My Tears,” for sheer groove factor (the woman can sing anything), and a “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?” that would melt butter, ice, or even the most difficult-to-move person who has had a bad day.  Every performance in the show seems to best, in even the smallest of ways, the one just before it, which is why the trifecta of the last three numbers is like a miniature pop music opera… well, not pop music exclusively, but the two Broadway compositions in the three act play were, actually, turned into radio hits by The Streisand Lady, so it kind of counts.  But I cannot bring myself to tell you the names of the songs because the emotional weight of Ann’s words leading into these three tracks, and, then, the tracks themselves, are all just too rewarding when experienced live.  And I want people to go experience them, live.  So please forgive the coy disguise of simply saying that THE BEST OF Ann Hampton Callaway is an overusage of words.  Because there is no best of Ann Hampton Callaway - everything she does is the best because SHE is the best.  Hands down, no contest, no challenger.  She stands alone.  Except when Liz shows up… yeah, that’s right, the sisters are together for part of this show - and if THAT doesn’t get your bumm in a seat, luv, then nothing will.

THE BEST OF Ann Hampton Callaway plays 54 Below through September 27th.  Tickets are available HERE.  The show will livestream on September 27th, and those reservations can be made HERE.

Ann Hampton Callaway returns to 54 Below on January 9th with HERE’S TO LIFE.  Tickets can be gotten HERE.

Liz Callaway and Ann Hampton Callaway will play 54 Below January 14 though 17 with the fifteenth anniversary performance of their show BOOM!  Tickets are accessible HERE.

Photos by Stephen Mosher