A Night at Jim Caruso’s Cast Party

Birdland, NYC, May 7, 2018

By Chris Struck for Cabaret Scenes

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jpg” alt=”” width=”212″ height=”212″ /> Jim Caruso

Well, it seems like I must have been living under the cabaret euphemism for a rock, because I must be one of the only people to have not shown up at Birdland for Jim Caruso’s weekly Cast Party. Let’s say I was doing something extra important every Monday night since March of 2017, because who’d want to miss a night full of this much talent? Or, maybe because it is a Monday night and when the festivities finished, it had cleared the first hour of Tuesday with one last raucous round of applause? But, had you ducked out early, you might have missed some of the best acts to take up the empty space between the tables and the band…So of course I stayed and so did the host of the evening, Jim Caruso. Aided by an accomplished, quick-fingered— and not to mention durable — trio in Billy Stritch (piano), Steve Doyle (bass), and Daniel Glass (drums), Caruso played equal parts showman, maestro, wizard, concierge, and positive force for musical good—a force needed with an entire lineup in from the West Virginia University class of 2018 breaking in their early Manhattan nights with a chance to overcome lack of experience with desire, grit, and flashy splendor. Well, maybe lacking only one of those three, but then that is why there is a Jim Caruso.

Starting off the night with an up-tempo “We’re in the Money” (Al Dubin/Harry Warren), Caruso certainly set the mood to thrill. He was immediately followed by one of the best of the night and one of my highlights: Jonathan Hawkins and Bombshell performer Heather O’Neil, who performed a noteworthy rendition of Judy and Barbra’s “Happy Days Are Here Again”/“Get Happy” medley. It’s a number I’ve seen a couple of times before, but they brought their own personalities to the mix and utilized strong pitch control in the upper octaves to keep the good mood going. Jessica Hendy was the next to impress with another Streisand and cabaret classic, “Don’t Rain on My Parade” (Jule Styne/Bob Merrill). Her resounding notes proved why she was a mainstay in Cats on Broadway and why you better not rain on her parade.

For all the highs and lows of Streisand covers and early Manhattan jitters, the night stopped on a dime for Leah Sprecher, the second of the Bombshells to grace the Cast Party stage. Performing probably the single most common cabaret song I’ve seen in the 100+ shows that I’ve reviewed now, the Sondheim classic, “The Ladies Who Lunch,” might have gone by without much of a second thought, had she not held onto a whiskey glass filled with what looked like a martini and performed the song with a much appreciated tilt. I think Caruso said what was on many of our minds: “That was water—I think that was water,” when she finally sauntered off-stage after blasting out an excruciatingly angsty, “I’ll drink to that!” I’d have to agree that whether it was water or not, Sprecher put on a show of getting into character. Having pulled a few of my own half-liters of Vodka from the mouth of the bottle and narrowed down my choice of gin to Tanqueray Ten for the clean, sweet taste, I’d have to think it’d take longer than the first 30 minutes of the Cast Party to accomplish any of the swagger she brought on stage without it being purely her. Bravo.

Moving on, and because the show was long enough, there was plenty more to see. The Drinkwater Brothers came on with their duet performance of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy,” a classic of my high school years, suddenly starting to date me (and doesn’t that make everyone else feel old, too?) when the kids said, “You might not have heard of this one.” Their performance was solid. Props to their strong song choice.

The best back-to-back duo came up a little while later in Allyson Briggs and Gary Burr. After a joke about the number of iPads that Briggs carries and how spoiled Glass was on the night with regards to the sheet music he received, Briggs pulled off the ever-surprisingly sultry “Zou Bisou Bisou” (Bill Shepherd and Alan Tew), but in the Michel Rivgauche French version. Merci beaucoup mademoiselle, you said that you were from Pittsburgh, non? Burr, another one of the hottest names at Birdland to be there that night, brushed off the dust to give us an original love song. One of few, but I’d argue that there’s a reason people ask him to continue to put them out there. With sneaky verse lines like, “They’ve been together 24 years” and “Anyone would be a fool not to listen to what love said,” he got this cold, empty heart believing it might one day melt for what love might say.

Three more stalwarts who caught my attention as the moon drifted deeper into the sky (and evaporated thoughts of love living elsewhere) were Jason Henderson, Natalie Douglas, and Ben Boecker. Henderson made a solid quip about exporting American songs back to America and chose a song with the line “Cut yourself a piece of cake and make yourself at home.” Well, I think it sounds better with Henderson’s New Zealander accent, but Billy Murray ain’t a bad, old find. Douglas took on the King with “Viva Las Vegas” and, though it took her a second to get the second verse started, she breezed through “How I wish that there were more than the twenty-four hours in the day.” Whoo, “Viva Las Vegas!” I think that we can all relate to remembering that we had a swinging time, especially when Boecker decided to share part of a musical he’s been working on. It’s got a unique comedic element, since he’s added malfunctioning robot sounds (with his natural voice) to the lyrics of a psycho “Prince Robot” going after a young woman hiding from her evil witch family.

And that pretty much wraps up another night of Caruso’s weekly Monday Cast Party, full of Broadway stars and amateurs, as at least 29 acts hit the stage. To highlight again the West Virginia crowd: They were good audience members, many stayed late, and to give a shout-out to a few the WVU grads who may be worth looking into, I’d highlight Alec Tincher, Christin Wright, and Elisabeth Shiffbauer. And I expect a few others might be able to prove me wrong for missing out on them. See you next Monday!