BWW Reviews: Jim J Bullock Scores Different @ Sterling's

On Saturday March 5 comic actor Jim J. Bullock debuted a whole new cabaret act entitled Different @ Sterling's Upstairs @ Vitello's. Expecting the silly, over-the-top zaniness that has characterized Bullock's work on TV and stage over the past 30 years, the audience was blown away by his ferocity, warmth and sincerity as a serious performer. Indeed, Bullock set out to show a different side of himself, and he succeeded admirably. This is a fine actor with a great set of pipes who knows how to nail the substance of a song and then send it soaring. Careful not to begin with an overly dramatic tune, he grabbed the audience with the humor of Harry Warren's classic "Keep Young and Beautiful" and then continued with a comic torch song "Newt" which he had performed in Mark Waldrop's When Pigs Fly a few years back. If you're going to do something different, better to start with the familiar and take the dramatic turns little by little, which is the way Bullock proceeded.
It worked beautifully!

Other highlights included: an extremely hilarious reinterpretation of "Smile" called "Frown" by D. C. Anderson which literally turns the meaning inside out, two more torch songs from When Pigs Fly: "Rush" a delicious seduction of Rush Limbaugh and a new one "Glenn", written especially for Bullock by Waldrop about teabagger Glenn Beck. Also comedic was D. C. Anderson's "Maury" about a little baby putting down his abusive parents from his crib in the green room of The Maury Povich Show. Funny stuff! Then there was the more serious material, some of which could be judiciously left out, a song called "God's Will", nice but too heavy, as is "Not a Cloud in the Sky". The best of the drama songs were a sort of Jacques Brel-esque "And They're Off", delivered with a fiery intensity by Bullock, a lovely intimate "Fly Me to the Moon", a fabulously honest and dynamic "Brother Can You Spare a Dime", a pretty tune about trust "The Voice Within" by Christine Aguilera and then the finale Sondheim's "Move On" and encore Jerry Herman's "I Am What I Am" from La Cage Aux Folles. Bullock pushed a little hard on some of the songs, but as he continues to perform them, they will fit him nicely. The man can sing!

Different, subtitled One Man's Musical Journey was finely directed by Michael Lorre with superb musical direction by Gary Mattison, who accompanied at the piano throughout the hour-long set. Bullock was quick to point out that this is a work in progress, so some songs will be cut and others added. Bullock is an honest man who takes the musical selections, makes them his own and delivers them with a passionate and resolute determination that takes him to another more respected level of performance. This a mature and refined Jim J. Bullock. I applaud him.
Bravo!

(Photo: Too Close for Comfort's Deborah Van Valkenburgh, Lydia Cornell and Nancy Dussault were on hand @ Sterling's to support Jim on March 5.)