Billy Stritch & Nicolas King
Come to the Cabaret
The Green Room 42, NYC, January 8, 2025
Reviewed by Bart Greenberg

Photo: Kevin Alvey
Two of the most talented and charming performers in the cabaret business came together to entertain an audience and pay tribute to the Lighthouse Guild. When those two fellows are Billy Stritch and Nicolas King, the value is guaranteed. They brought along drummer Daniel Glass and bassist Tom Hubbard, which added to the luster. The only thing missing from the evening was a solid core for the show, which consisted mostly of random segments that expressed the various interests of the artists.
There were some great moments, such as King’s blending of “Yes I Can” (Charles Strouse/Lee Adams) and “I Can See It” (Harvey Schmidt/Tom Jones), which created a positive energy that infected the audience. King then showed he was just as adept at ballads as with up tunes with an intense and moving “Time Heals Everything” (Jerry Herman). His mix of both fully vocalizing and talking lyrics worked really well with this material.
Stritch shined too, demonstrating his contrasting personality. Where King was all high energy, the singer/pianist was relaxed and easy-going (perhaps it’s that Southern-boy dynamic as opposed to the other’s New York City vibe). Stritch’s delivery of “That Old Feeling” (Sammy Fain/Lew Brown) glowed. But the best was yet to come as he paid tribute to his old friend and mentor Cy Coleman when King joined in for a mini show within the show to sing such delicious tunes as “You Fascinate Me So,” “When in Rome (I Do as the Romans Do)” and “It Amazes Me” (all with lyrics by Carolyn Leigh). These moments were the absolute definition of the intimate art of cabaret.