Nick Cordero
Live Your Life
(Broadway Records)
October 9, 2020
Reviewed by Joel Benjamin
Let’s pretend that Nick Cordero is still with us and was not one of the victims of the Covid pandemic, for he certainly is movingly alive on his Live Your Life CD.
This is a recording of Cordero’s one-man show at Feinstein’s/54 Below recorded live on April 11, 2019—a fitting epitaph to a life cut tragically short. It’s not mind-blowingly spectacular, but it makes a warmly charming punctuation to a career on an upward path. Live Your Life is also the title of Cordero’s own song—his encore, a summing up of his everyman philosophy.
This life- and career-transiting show began with a seductive “All Night Long” (Lionel Ritchie) rousing the audience with its intensity, segueing into humorous stories about his Latino family—bad flights, bad fights, infidelity, reconciliation—resonating in a lovingly sung “Oye Como Va” (Tito Puente) and a gently lilting “If I Ain’t Got You” (Alicia Augello-Cook) sung in duet with the sultry Kathryn Gallagher (Jagged Little Pill).
His take on “What a Wonderful World” (Bob Thiele/George David Weiss) sung with music director Michael J. Moritz Jr. on piano, is hypnotically hushed; paired with the harsher “Politik” (Chris Martin/Guy Berryman/Jonny Buckland/Will Champion), an intense expression of the need for strength and iron will to survive.
Bored with family life in Toronto, Cordero headed to New York and, finally, booked his first job in The Toxic Avenger, where he met Sara Chase. They sing “Hot Toxic Love” (David Bryan/Joe DiPietro), a goofy love story about a monster and a scientist. Cordero keeps prodding Chase with silly asides that only make her sing louder.
Bullets Over Broadway saved him from abject poverty and also brought his soon-to-be wife Amanda Kloots into his life. He followed that role with the abusive-husband role in Waitress, from which he sang “You Matter to Me” (Sara Bareilles), performed here with Drew Gehling (the “hero” of Waitress) and the colorful Zach Braff (Bullets Over Broadway) showing off decent comedy chops interpolating humorous quips.
Chazz Palminteri’s A Bronx Tale made Cordero a big Broadway star in the role of Sonny. “One of the Great Ones” (Alan Menken/GlennSlater), a father’s gentle romantic advice to his son, displays why he was so respected in this role.
The wistful “The Men That Drive Me Places” (Benjamin Rector) reveals the thoughts and regrets of the usually anonymous men known from the backs of their heads.
The emotional zinger comes when Cordero proudly reveals that he and Amanda are expecting their first child, who, as we all realize, will never know his father. “The Mother” (Brandi Carlile) underscores his eagerness and sense of dread to be a dad. Its powerful poetry and simple, folksy melody give the song its strength. A photo of Cordero, his hand over Amanda’s belly, is truly heartbreaking.
Cordero’s voice has a slight velvety edge, a quality fully taken advantage of in the arrangements of his music director Michael J. Moritz Jr.’s exciting, yet subtle, arrangements for the terrific band (Larry Cook on bass, Kenny Brescia on guitar, Billy LaGuardia on drums, and Marcos Torres III on percussion) plus three backup vocalists (Onyie Nwachukwu, Kim Steele, Keith White).
Moritz also directed the show to highlight Cordero’s wonderful casual style.
It’s rare that a cabaret act also serves as a eulogy, but Live Your Life is a perfect one for this special, likeable man.
