Ben Jones: Timeless

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Ben Jones

Timeless

Laurie Beechman Theatre, NYC, March 11, 2026

Reviewed by Jacqueline Parker

Ben Jones
Photo by Gene Reed

Ben Jones delivered his idiosyncratic brand of magic to a highly receptive audience at the Laurie Beechman Theatre by taking tunes from the American Songbook and giving them relevancy to a younger audience. He also presented some more modern songs that he felt should be part of that canon, and he performed them in ways pleasing to an older audience.

How does he accomplish this two-way musical time travel?  With professional ease is the simple answer. Jones is young enough that Gershwin and Kern are legitimately part of his grandparents’ generation. He took them, dusted them off to a high polish, and then presented them in all their not fyet ully realized glory. “The Way You Look Tonight” (Jerome Kern/Dorothy Fields) and “Embraceable You” (the Gershwins) are almost a century old, yet Jones imbued them with an energy and unbridled sincerity that left his listeners with no other choice but to smile and sigh. His ability to hold a final note was remarkable and dramatically intense. Perhaps in this performance he was aided by the presence of his wife, to whom he seemed to be directing many of the numbers.

It has been said that the phrase “falling in love” is such a perfect description because when we fall, we are helpless. Jones seemed unable to help himself at times in expressing deep-seated emotion, a rare characteristic these days in or out of cabaret.

“Ain’t No Sunshine” (Bill Withers) was seemingly pushed and pulled in so many ways that in a quirky, almost synesthetic moment, that I felt the song itself must be tired from the exercise Jones had just put it through. It was an experience I’ll never forget.

Jones was not the only one who was working the music for all its worth. Ron Abel, who was also celebrating his birthday, seemed to be having a great time at the piano. Oz Noy on guitar, Jed Fedder on drums, and Yuka Tadano on bass brought their personal virtuosity to the proceedings.

Remember the sensation the first time you tasted chocolate dusted with a pinch of salt? That’s the feeling Jones evoked when he sang “People Will Say We’re in Love” (Rodgers & Hammerstein). Jones sped up “It’s All Right with Me” (Cole Porter) so effectively that it was like being on the bullet train of cabaret.

The band held back a bit during “Being Alive” (Stephen Sondheim); then they joined Jones about halfway through and helped him crack open that familiar number to reveal—and force listeners to acknowledge—emotions that we all carry deep within ourselves.

Many performers sing from the heart, which is grand. Jones, however, seems to be singing from his soul. One senses that his total outpouring of emotion is not in his control, that his soul overwhelms his heart and mind. Bravo, soul!

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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.