Jessica Vosk
My Golden Age
Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, Scottsdale, AZ, January 29, 2023
Reviewed by Lynn Timmons Edwards
Following a smashing success at Carnegie Hall, Broadway star Jessica Vosk has taken her cabaret, My Golden Age, on the road. Music lovers in Arizona were treated to the third stop on her tour where she delivered a nearly two-hour non-stop performance accompanied by her music director/pianist Mary Mitchell-Campbell and drummer Damian Bassman. Who knew that Elphaba (Vosk) and Glinda (Kristin Chenoweth) traveled with the same music director as well as the incomparable back-up vocalist Marissa Rosen? Quality knows quality, and I can only fantasize that someday the two might find their way back to Broadway or least to NYC’s 54 Below as a duo. Vosk does a mean Chenoweth impersonation, so they were both there in spirit.
Vosk opened with a medley of the Broadway tunes “Let Me Entertain You” and “Pure Imagination” as she weaved through the aisles to greet her audience. Immediately we were treated to her vocal range, which goes from one of the finest Broadway belts in the business to the lilting mix from middle to head voice required by so many ballads. She is sassy, flirtatious, and funny. A Jersey girl through and through, Vosk prepared us for spontaneity as she took us on the journey of her life: a disastrous audition to be one of Bette Midler’s Harlettes, competing against former Rockettes, a stint on Wall Street, and booking her first Broadway gig as a swing in The Bridges of Madison County. She won us over with her heart and authenticity. Her song choices were somewhat like ping-pong balls and included pop and country as well as Broadway numbers, where she was clearly most at home.
She set the scene for an eclectic medley by taking us to a song from Act Two of Fiddler on the Roof when she suddenly had to “swing” in as Golda, much to the disappointment of both the show’s star and the audience. From “Do You Love Me?,” she moved into the Stone Poney’s “Different Drum” (Michael Nesmith) and then to the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” and finally to Sondheim’s “Everybody Says Don’t.” I am still mulling over the courage it took to mash those songs together, but they did reflect every emotion that can go through an actor who’s being put on the spot and having to ask “Do You Love Me?”
Apparently when one plays Wicked’s Elphaba (Vosk won the 2019 Audience Choice Award for Best Female Replacement) there are restrictions to singing songs from the score in solo concerts. She threw caution to the wind for a moment, but there was no “Defying Gravity” to be heard even in the encores.
Rosen joined Vosk on stage for “Anti-Hero,” the new hit single by Taylor Swift. Rosen is a gifted vocalist in her own right and a sought-after back-up singer. She created lilting harmonies with the star and knew just when to shine and when to take the back seat. She soloed on a kick-ass rendition of “Son of a Preacher Man.” Go see her solo cabaret show if you are in New York City.
A few of Vosk’s song choices including the ’80’s pop tune “King of Wishful Thinking” (Martin Page/Peter Cox/Richard Drummie) and Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now,” could have been more personalized. Just liking a song or an artist pales at times to choosing stronger material. Whitney Houston’s hit “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” made the night for a young audience member named Brock who got into the act. He might have been a plant, but the moment was charming and we loved Vosk for making it happen. Hopefully, as the tour progresses, she will also lose the music stand and use her stool for more than holding water bottles. Any criticism went out the window when she sang “Don’t Rain on My Parade.” Audiences would be lucky to see her as Fanny Brice in the upcoming national tour of Funny Girl.
Vosk closed with the Elton John/Bernie Taupin “Your Song,” which engaged her audience. After a well-deserved standing ovation, she encored with a story about singing Judy Garland songs and performed “Over the Rainbow.” A second encore reminded me of Ann Hampton Callaway’s joke about living in “ballad bondage” when Vosk chose Sting’s “Fields of Gold” to conclude the stellar evening.
