Eva Noblezada with Seth Rudetsky
The Scottsdale Center for the Arts, Scottsdale, AZ, January 21, 2022
Reviewed by Lynn Timmons Edwards
The last time Seth Rudetsky graced the stage of the Scottsdale Performing Arts Center he was with Norm Lewis, and we were a couple of days away from the pandemic shut down. Fast forward almost two years and over four hundred virtual Stars in the House programs and he’s back with a noticeably young and extremely talented Eva Noblezada. Spotted by the right people, she was plucked from her high school in Charlotte, North Carolina in 2013 and cast in the role of 17-year-old Kim in the 2014 West End revival and 2017 Broadway revival of Miss Saigon. She has been working ever since, and she handed her current role in Hadestown to an understudy to travel to Arizona with Rudetsky for their first engagement together.
Now only 25, she is
bright, energetic, and smart. She is also giddy and unfiltered and brings out
the paternal coaching instincts in Rudetsky. The evening was a fast-paced free-for-all
of music and storytelling kicked off by “Don’t Rain on My Parade” (Jule
Styne/Bob Merrill). Noblezada savors every song like a seasoned pro.
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She has a
distinctive sound that is contemporary and perfect for pop scores. She veered
from Broadway with a poignant “Love Is a Losing Game” written and originally
recorded by the late Amy Winehouse, an artist about whom Noblezada has crafted an
entire cabaret.
Rudetsky and Noblezada reminisced about her first big high school role as Maria in West Side Story and improvised while she showed off her highest notes, claiming she just couldn’t sing the middle range. That led to gossip about Noblezada observing Patti LuPone flipping from belt to head voice (a big no-no for Rudetsky). The duo settled down again with “She Used to Be Mine” from Waitress (Sara Bareilles) where her skill at dynamics thrived.
It turns out that Noblezada’s coach at the New York Jimmy Awards in 2013 was none other than Liz Callaway, so Seth chose to include Callaway’s arrangement of “Moon River” (Henry Mancini/Johnny Mercer) and “Journey to the Past” (Stephen Flaherty/Lynn Ahrens) from the animated film Anastasia. The cabaret included songs from her roles in Miss Saigon, Les Miz, and Hadestown.
Her 11 o’clock number was a medley of “Falling in Love Is Wonderful” (Irving Berlin) and the Charlie Chaplin/John Turner/Geoffrey Parsons “Smile,” which worked musically but presented a mixed message. Noblezada defended the ability of young people to feel pain and pathos even though they have not yet experienced as much of life as nearly every person in her audience.
If this review reaches Noblezada’s eyes, I beg her to learn her lyrics. She used a music stand for every song but her last, where she finally pushed it aside. It is a crutch that prevents her from being at her best as a cabaret artist.
She often performs at The Green Room 42 in New York and has been reviewed there twice by my Cabaret Scenes colleagues in 2018 and 2019. We all see her strengths, and I for one look forward to seeing how her Broadway and cabaret careers evolve and mature over time.
Bravo to the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts for hosting the Seth Rudetsky Concert Series. He will be back once more this season on February 19 with Jeremy Jordon.
