Cheyenne Jackson
Eyes Wide Open
Café Carlyle, NYC, January 13, 2015
Reviewed by Annamaria Alfieri for Cabaret Scenes
Cheyenne Jackson does not rely on just his matinee idol good looks and lovely baritone voice to win over his sold-out audience at New York’s Café Carlyle. He hangs his performance on autobiographical anecdotes delivered with unfaked sincerity, adding layers of authenticity rare in these times. The songwriters represented include Hoagy Carmichael, Duke Ellington and Lady Gaga (and their respective collaborators), giving emotional expression to the stories of Jackson’s life. The list includes a collaboration by Jackson and Michael Feinstein, inspired by the motto of Jackson’s grandmother–“Red Wine Is Good for My Heart.” Jackson accompanies himself on the piano and sings its blues-style lyric and traditional ballad melody with obvious pleasure in the memories it evoked of his granny.
The evening’s smooth jazz accompaniment, provided by music director Willy Beaman on piano, Vancil (Vanch) Cooper on drums, and Michael O’Brian on bass, shone at its swinging best in “A Foggy Day (in London Town).” The depth of Jackson’s baritone on “Besame Mucho” fills the room with musicality and artistry, and is blessedly minus any hint of the gratuitous sexiness that one often hears in this song.
Jackson dedicates his rocking, deeply emotional rendition of Elton John/ Bernie Taupin’s “Your Song” to his husband. A highlight of the show is a medley that perfectly blended “I Get Along Without You Very Well (Except Sometimes)” with “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore.”
“Falling Slowly,” a paean to Jackson’s apparently hard-won sobriety, includes backup singing by Beaman. In the final number, Jackson loses himself in Joni Mitchell’s “A Case of You” and is at his very best. His encore, “What a Wonderful World” fades at the perfect moment into “Auld Lang Syne,” a sweet reminder of the young year’s promise of new beginnings.
(Cheyenne Jackson’s show runs through January 24.)
