Nicolas King
Winter in New York
Chelsea Table + Stage, NYC, January 26, 2024
Reviewed by Bart Greenberg
Photo: Stephen Sorokoff
With a mix of polish and charm, Nicolas King took the stage at Chelsea Table + Stage before an appreciative audience that was filled with celebrities of the cabaret world. The program contained a nice mix of standards and obscurities, featuring songs directly related to the theme of the show, Winter in New York. It was a lovely excursion by this jazz vocalist and crooner that featured a grouping of songs by Rodgers & Hart. In other words, it was smart cabaret and a pleasure to attend.
King kicked off the show with a terrific arrangement of “There’s a Boat Dat’s Leavin’ Soon for New York” (Gershwins) that built and built and built, expanding energy into the room. In sharp contrast his next selection was Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind,” sung with just piano accompaniment in a laid-back style that drew the audience to him. He repeated this trick to great effect in his encore, “The Things We Did Last Summer” (Sammy Cahn/Jule Styne) To introduce the theme of the night of fighting off the winter blues came an upbeat medley of “Sleigh Ride” (Mitchell Parish/Leroy Anderson) and “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm” (Irving Berlin), and the two standards blended beautifully. Following these was a lovely rarity, “Wintertime in Central Park” (Ken Laub/Bill Fayne) that surprisingly seemed to evoke Portia Nelson’s recording of “Sunday in New York” (Carroll Coates/Peter Nero).
All of these numbers were enriched by King’s excellent band, led by music director/pianist John Di Martino with Tom Hubbard on bass and David Hawkins on drums. Trios just don’t get better than this. Also adding to the fun was his guest star and often partner in crime, Seth Sikes. With some off-hand and slightly naughty chat, they set the mood for a sassy, swinging “The Joint Is Really Jumpin’” (Hugh Martin/Ralph Blane/Roger Edens) that was sheer fun.
In the middle of the program, King shifted gears to offer a mini concert of selections from the Rodgers & Hart songbook. He began with another pairing of a standard and a lesser-known number—“Manhattan” and “The Algonquin Hotel” (Duncan Lamott)—that evoked the much-missed Oak Room (especially with KT Sullivan in the audience) along with some apt shared memories about his going there as a young man This segued natural into King’s early audition song “Johnny One Note,” one of those numbers that feels like it should be a showstopper but rarely is; in King’s electrifying performance it definitely was. This was followed by a very easy “Isn’t It Romanic” (paired with its wry comic verse), and a high-energy “This Can’t Be Love” propelled by a solo bass accompaniment to start. What fun this evening was; hopefully King will be back in town soon.
