Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
NEW YORK, 12th Jan. You simply can’t find a more talented performer on the Broadway stage than Tony Yazbeck. He is what they call a “triple threat”—he can sing, dance and act. He returned to Michael Feinstein’s supper club 54 Below this week, showing all three talents to packed audiences, and reinforcing 54 Below’s reputation as a premiere showcase for established performers like Yazbeck, as well as new talent.
You don’t have to be a Broadway aficionado to know the kind of path Yazbeck has plowed through the theater. His leading performance as Gabe in the 2014 revival of On the Town was nothing short of breathtaking, winning lauds from the critics and a Tony award nomination. He went on to starring roles in Prince of Broadway, in Chicago as Billy Flynn, the lead in Finding Neverland and capping it off with a critically acclaimed performance as an LSD-experimenting Cary Grant in Flying Over Sunset last year.
Despite the tiny stage at 54 Below, Yazbeck was able to off the kind of dazzling hoofing that won him the Fred Astaire Award for his On The Town, as well as providing new and very personal interpretations of standards that included “Oh What a Beautiful Morning” from Oklahoma!, “Not While I’m Around” from Sweeney Todd and Gershwin’s “The Way You Look Tonight. Interspersed with the songs and the dancing were reminiscences of his life in the theater—he began as a child actor—as well as his growing love affair with New York. His soulful interpretation of Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind” brought down the packed house.
Established Broadway pros like Tony Yazbeck are the foundation of 54 Below—as well as the man himself, Michael Feinstein—but so are talented lesser-known actors like the fine troupe of performers who entertained in December in “54 Celebrates Hanukkah: A Festival of Writers.” The aim was to give a showcase for talented writers and performers who hadn’t quite broken out, and it performed that task admirably, providing an entertaining evening that was warmly received. Hosed by Ilana Levin and Michael Kushner, it featured a bevy of fine songs that gave various interpretations of the holiday.
In future years, perhaps some of them will rise to the heights Tony Yazbeck has achieved. His On the Town performance rivaled and perhaps exceeded that of the legendary Gene Kelly in the MGM musical adaptation. His 54 Below triumph shows that he has nowhere to go but up.
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