By Marilyn Lester*** Since winning the Tony Award in 2006 for Best Leading Actor in a Musical, playing the role of Frankie Valli in Broadway’s Jersey Boys, John Lloyd Young has built a superstar nightclub and concert career. With an appeal that’s often off the charts, his success has garnered an active fan club of folks who are eager to physically follow him from venue to venue. In this latest residency at Feinstein’s/54 Below, Young effortlessly proved why he’s an A-list entertainer, with many adoring fans present in the audience.
Over six days, the performer varied the program, showcasing an immense repertoire of rock ‘n’ roll, Doo-Wop, R&B and Broadway standards. The topic of the review detailed herein was “most-requested”—tunes chosen during previous shows in the residency by that loyal fan base. There’s no mistaking why he’s become a certified, popular brand. He has a fine-tuned awareness of what that means and what his fans expect. In all, to paraphrase a Cole Porter standard, “he’ got that thing, that certain thing…” There’s the sexy good looks and the attitude to go with it—ultra cool in leather and sunglasses (with a nod to Jersey boys of the 1950s and 60s). Yet he doesn’t take himself too seriously. He’s having fun, and so are his base. And more than anything else, he delivers the goods, with an impressive vocal range, which includes the famous falsetto that he employed while playing Valli.
Young is a storyteller in his literate narrative and in lyric interpretation. In setting up, “Hey There, Lonely Girl,” sung in falsetto and made popular by R&B singer Eddie Holman, he divulges that songwriter Earl Shuman originally wrote the tune (with Leon Carr) for female voices and never changed the key. Lloyd is a master at connecting with his audience—relaxed an confident on stage and able to reach out with measured intimacy. He’s willing to get personal too, relating that his mother died when he was a toddler and tying that fact to a mystical experience concerning his father and the tune, “Twilight Time” (Morty Nevins, Al Nevism Artie Dunn, Buck Ram). Updating “I Have Dreamed” (Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II), with a pop edge, he sacrifices none of the deep interpretive aspects of the lyric. Likewise, his arrangement of “My Prayer” (George Boulanger, Carlos Gomez Barrera, Jimmy Kennedy) was stunning.
Throughout this smorgasbord of musical riches, Young was accompanied by long-time music director Tommy Faragher on piano, a wizard himself who from time to time offered vocals to the mix of songs. Young and Faragher are both Los Angeles-based, the town where the latter has made a formidable career as a producer, composer, songwriter, singer and arranger. Faragher has plenty of soul as well as music chops, so the two make a dynamite combination, with a hand-in-glove chemistry. They’re so tight that any other musical or vocal additions to the show might very well seem like an intrusion. With such talent, it’s no wonder that Young’s gigs at the venue are highly anticipated and are guaranteed to sell out to boot.
Photos by Deb Miller
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