John Abernathy
Life Is a Celebration
Club Café’s Napoleon Room, Boston, MA, November 17, 2024
By John Amodeo
If ever there was a time to spread joy this would be it, and John Abernathy’s latest cabaret show, Life Is a Celebration, was utterly joyful, with a soupçon of mischief, humor, grit, and resolve to round it out. Through it all, his thousand-watt smile lit up the Club Café’s Napoleon Room like a lighthouse on the shore, and the audience was happily gathered within his harbor.
He invited us into his safe orbit with an opening plea to join him on a journey to “Never Never Land (Jules Styne/Betty Comden & Adolph Green), which segued seamlessly into “Pure Imagination” (Leslie Bricusse/Anthony Newley). Often a filler song in most cabaret shows, here it was sung so sincerely that one couldn’t help but follow him into that magical world as he implored “If you want to view paradise, simply look around and view it/Anything you want to, do it?/Want to change the world, there’s nothing to it.” Who could turn down such an alluring entreaty, that especially now, resonates with new meaning and urgency?
As he intended, this show was a celebration—of life, of love, of all of us—that was poignantly rendered in his celebratory and upbeat “Here’s to Life” (Artie Butler/Phyllis Molinary). Though he dedicated it to his husband Jay, who beamed back from the audience, Abernathy made us feel as if he was singing to each one of us. Although it’s usually sung as a strident ballad, he sang in a lively swinging up-tempo. The song was beautifully arranged by music director/pianist Jim Rice, whose thrilling and lush musical interlude seemed to have used every key of the baby grand’s 88s.
At key moments in the show, Abernathy waxed contemplatively, such as with a riveting “Both Sides Now” (Joni Mitchell) and a sweetly sung “The Secret o’ Life” (James Taylor). He confessed that he had a passion for the arts, because of which he left a cushy but soul-draining engineering job, and followed with a gorgeously sung “I Was Here” (Lynn Ahrens/Stephen Flaherty). This number packed an emotional punch and was the dramatic highlight of the show.
This show was also a celebration of Abernathy’s milestone 60th birthday, and here is where the art form of cabaret shines. Cabaret, unlike, say, ballet or pop singing, views age as an asset. Abernathy has matured gracefully and so has his performance style. Confident and well poised on stage, he brought a depth of life experience to each song that pulled us in even when we knew where it was going. Credit goes to his longtime director, Ida Zecco, who has helped him hone his story to make it concise and vital.
As with any celebration, once the toasts have been given and the wine starts flowing there was fun to be had, and Abernathy’s celebration was full of fun. His second song, “The Short-Term Memory Blues” by the hilarious Ray Jessel, showcased his razor-sharp comic timing. And when we least expected it, out came the accordion, which he used to accompany himself on the amusing yet provocative “The Movie of My Life” (Susan Werner).
Using his Shirley Temple coffee mug to herald Temple as the foremost champion of childhood optimism, Abernathy hilariously launched into the unabashedly pessimistic “Life Sucks and Then You Die,” another Ray Jessel gem. He sang it in perfect perky Shirley Temple style, and it elicited non-stop belly laughs from the audience. If that wasn’t enough, Abernathy had us all sing along with him on the final chorus.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Abernathy’s beautiful resonant tenor; its warm timbre added luster to each of his offerings. He used it to grand effect in his finale, Jerry Herman’s anthem “World, Take Me Back” (Hello, Dolly!). The song was written for Ethel Merman; she was originally cast as Dolly Levi, but the song was cut when she was replaced by Carol Channing. Abernathy’s rich voice helped turn it into a tour de force that built and built with each subsequent verse and ended with a huge finish, worthy of Herman and Merman.
To put a bow on this already effervescent fête of a show, Abernathy encored with a vibrant, vivacious pairing of “But Alive” and “Applause,” both from the musical Applause (Charles Strouse/Lee Adams). He sang them with a genuine gusto that left us all smiling, for him and for ourselves. That’s what I call a celebration.
