James Barbour
The 2015 Annual James Barbour Holiday Concert
Birdland, NYC, December 6, 2015
Reviewed by Victoria Ordin for Cabaret Scenes
James Barbour and three fellow cast members from The Phantom of the Opera delivered a musically impressive show to a sold-out audience, many of whom had attended Barbour’s Annual Holiday Concert at this venue before. Birdland is, of course, known primarily for jazz, but it’s also the home of Jim Caruso’s Cast Party and the Broadway at Birdland series.
Those who attend cabaret shows at other rooms in the city will be shocked at the venue’s size. A show with an audience of several hundred inevitably feels less intimate than one even at a larger cabaret like Feinstein’s/54 Below. The concert felt more like a Vegas show with opera singers than a New York cabaret performance, though many in the audience were clearly devoted fans.
Though the holiday concert was Barbour’s (and presumably his guests’) 10th show of the week (including their eight shows of Phantom), he didn’t phone it in, though his conversational interludes covered fairly predictable terrain: the innocence of children, the magic of Christmas snow, and the retention of joy and hope in a world full of violence. The star power on the Birdland stage that night was such that I could have done with less talk (or preaching) and more music, but I surely take a more cynical, jaded view of the matter than most.
Some may enjoy ecumenical “messages,” but I think Barbour is generally on stronger ground when he confines his remarks between songs to his upbringing in (predominantly Jewish) Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
Still, the guest performances were transcendent. While not a tenor, Jeremy Stolle played one admirably in his solo. He has one of the most beautiful voices I’ve heard, singing every lyric with piercing honesty and understated power. The arrangement of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” with Barbour and Julia Udile was spectacular, making their duet a highlight of the evening. Laird Mackintosh’s self-deprecation was endearing; he expressed gratitude that his number did not directly follow Stolle’s.
But his solo was also a hit. The evening concluded with a lovely rendition of “O Holy Night,” a favorite of Barbour’s mother.