Review: JENN COLELLA - OUT AND PROUD at Feinstein's At The Nikko

Jenn Colella - Out and Proud

Feinstein’s at the Nikko

30 June 2023

It seemed like a joyous homecoming for Jenn Colella, who reveled in the love received from a predominantly gay audience. Last seen in cabaret here in 2019, Colella is freshly married and positively giddy in her new position as an ‘owl’, a wise lesbian. Her new show, Out and Proud, chronicles her early love for music, her childhood in the South and her coming out in NYC and finding her tribe.

Her arrangement of Johhny Nash’s “I Can See Clearly Now” was slow and thoughtful, the hopeful lyrics mimicking her newfound freedom of self. When agents tell her never to come out cause it’ll ruin your career, Colella sings Sondheim’s “Everybody Says Don’t”, a defiant in-your-face satire on conformity. When asked to perform in a Lerner & Loewe tribute Jenna asked the PBS producers if she could transpose a pronoun and they shockingly agreed- thus “I Could’ve Danced All Night” is an exhilarating same-sex number. It may seem a small gesture, but it’s revolutionary and profound to take ownership of the song.

A couple of crowd-favorite sing alongs (Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody”, The Weather Girls “It’s Raining Men”) highlighted Jenn’s connection to her audience and her ability to forge an emotional endearing link. Bob Dylan’s “Make You Feel My Love’ is the song she sang to her beloved when popping the big question and is a lovely moment.

Having played the role of Peter Pan multiple times, Colella sings the 11th hour number “Never Never Land” (Jule Styne, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green), then ripped into a rockfish version of Janis Joplin’s hit “Piece of my Heart”. Another tender moment is her cover of Ani DiFranco’s “Angry Anymore”, a song of forgiveness for parental squabbling.

Colella is now out and proud, enjoying her moments of success and peace. Her encore of the Otis Redding hit “Hard to Handle” is brash and confident like Colella’s voice. A fitting quote from Sondheim’s “Everybody Says Don’t” sums up Colella’s journey: “Lady You're Doing Just Fine, Make Just a Ripple Come on Be Brave, This Time A Ripple Next Time A Wave”. Colella is certainly making those waves.