Joey Infante in "Babalu"

Friday, December 2, 2011 @ Don't Tell Mama

Joey Infante stormed into the smaller room at Don't Tell Mama in NYC with an admirable performance in his show "Babalu".  The audience made up of mostly friends gobbled up everything Joey served.  He opened the show with a short potpourri featuring the Latin favorite "Cumbanchero" to great delight.  However the show needed more of an entrance for Joey... a fan fare... something.

The show featured a nice mix of music from Broadway to Latin.  Joey does not have the most expansive vocal range, but what he does have is heart.  The band under the direction of Barry Levitt was wonderful and the show as a whole was very polished.  I only wished I could have learned just a little more about this charming man.  Maybe at his next offering.

I felt the show needed more of a closer.  As the "closer", Joey sang well the show's title song "Babalu", then disappeard to the back of the house having left the audience waiting for something more, but that "more" never came.   Jillian Laurain credited with the direction should have created a more dynamic opening and more punctuated closing.  However, it was a very engaging evening.

Lucio… Less Cuban Than Ever

Razzle-dazzle with heart

By Peter Gottlieb

The show “Lucio… Less Cuban Than Ever” presented at The Laurie Beechman Theatre can be best described as razzle-dazzle with heart. In this one hour and twenty minute extravaganza the audience is treated to a most delectable and appetizing musical cabaret feast. 

The show starring Lucio Fernandez along with three dancers and a nine-piece band is a hugely entertaining and colorful show.  The energetic and charismatic Fernandez takes to the tiny Beechman stage as though he was performing for a hundred of his best friends.  And for that night, they were.  The audience ate up everything this talented entertainer put forth, listening to every note and chuckling to every comic story. 

Lucio sang beautiful heartfelt renditions of “Tonight” from West Side Story and “Who Can I turn To” from the Roar of The Greasepaint, but his haunting delivery of “Anthem” from Chess dedicated to the memory of his Father, was awe inspiring.  His interpretation of “Where or When’ was also noteworthy.  However, the piece de resistance for me was when he sang the classic bolero “Como Fue”.  His romantic tenor voice filled the Beechman with romance, and when on the bridge, he danced with an imaginary partner, one could hear a combined sigh from the audience.

The dancers performed heroically on the reduced stage, and Lucio too delivered exceptionally well in this category.  The band under the direction of Mark Goodman was wonderful; the direction by cabaret staple Lennie Watts was tight; and the choreography by Megan Fernandez, Lucio’s real life wife, was inspired.

Cuban culture has always been intriguing to American audiences, however what’s served here is not your run of the mill palm tree-filled folklore with straw huts and rum and Cokes.  This show is slick and elegant and with a ton of heart.  A must see!