Bryce Edwards:The Bryce Edwards Frivolity Hour

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Bryce Edwards

The Bryce Edwards Frivolity Hour

Birdland, NYC, September 9, 2024

Reviewed by Jacqueline Parker

Bryce Edwards

Birdland was truly jumping Monday night thanks to Bryce Edwards and his team of equally talented musicians who evoked the magic of the 1920s so skillfully that one wanted to start doing the Charleston after a few sips of bathtub gin. Edwards has a love for this era and its infectious music, and he delights in getting everyone to love it as much as he does. He played six—count ‘em six—different instruments, at one point playing two at a time and singing!

He began with “Fascinating Rhythm” (George & Ira Gershwin) that set the tone for an evening of superlative entertainment and ignored the fact that the song is now a century old.  Edwards spiced it up with his own brand of scat, crediting Cliff Edwards while making it all his own.  “Vo-Do-Do-De-O Blues” was another crowd pleaser, and it was followed by the familiar “Makin’ Whoopee” by Walter Donaldson and Gus Kahn. Edwards made his entire face become yet another instrument, and he rolled his eyes and slyly smiled to highlight the full importance of the lyric.

Reilly Wilmit, billed as a featured vocalist and songophonist, joined for several of the tunes. Clad in a red taffeta strapless dress and with hair that evoked the Breck Girls of the 1950s, she exuded the charm and glamour of the era. She joined Edwards for “Button Up Your Overcoat” (Henderson, Brown & DeSylva), and spoke to Edwards using the Betty Boop voice that Helen Kane was famous for, which furthered the feeling of being back in a time when life was simpler and sweeter.

No cabaret show about this era would be complete without a mention of Rudy Vallée, and Edwards described him beautifully, right down to his raccoon coat and megaphone. He even sang a song Vallée wrote with Charles E. Henderson entitled “Deep Night” from 1929. Edwards was supported by a quartet of musicians, all of whom looked as though they were having as much fun as he was in taking the audience on a trip through time to discover why the Twenties were roaring! Hats off to Scott Ricketts, Ricky Alexander, Conal Fowles, and Jay Rattman for helping Edwards make Birdland seem like a speakeasy, if only for an hour.

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Jacqueline Parker

Like Ethel Merman, lifelong New Yorker Jacqueline Parker began her career as a stenographer. She spent more than two decades at the city's premier public agency, progressing through positions of increased responsibility after earning her BA in English from New York University (3.5 GPA/Dean’s List). She won national awards for her work in public relations and communication and had the privilege of working in the House of Commons for Stephen Ross, later Lord Ross of Newport. In the second half of her career, Jacqueline brought her innate organizational skills and creative talents to a variety of positions. While distinguishing herself in executive search, she also gave her talents to publishing, politics, writing, radio broadcasting and Delmonico's Restaurant. Most recently, she hosted Anything Goes! a radio show that paid homage to Cole Porter and by extension the world of Broadway musicals and the Great American Songbook. Other features of the show were New York living, classical music, books, restaurants, architecture and politics. This show highlighted the current Broadway scene, both in New York and around the country through performances and interviews with luminaries including Len Cariou, Charles Strouse, Laura Osnes, Steve Ross and Joan Copeland. Her pandemic project was immersion into the life, times and work of Alfred Hitchcock, about whom she has written a soon-to-be-published article. Jacqueline has been involved in a myriad of charitable causes, most notably the Walt Frazier Youth Foundation, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Sisters of Life, York Theatre, and the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival. She is a proud Founder of Hidden Water. Her greatest accomplishment is the parenting of her son, a lawyer specializing in mediation. She has many pretend grandchildren, nieces and nephews, on whom she dotes shamelessly, as well as a large circle of friends to whom she is devoted. Her interests in addition to theater and cabaret are cooking, entertaining, reading, and spending time on Queen Mary 2.

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