Review: Jessica Darrow Owns 54 Below During Solo Show Debut SURFACE PLEASURE

It was a night filled with electricity as the standing room only crowd waited for Jessica Darrow to make her appearance on the Feinstein's stage on February 12th. The breakout star of the Disney film ENCANTO was there to make her 54 Below solo show debut and the people were ready for it, so when Ms. Darrow was introduced by the announcer, the basement erupted like a crowd at a Madison Square Garden rock concert, and, in the opinion of this writer, they should have.

Jessica Darrow is one unique lady, talented, interesting, thoroughly authentic, and a ball of fire with more energy than one often finds on a stage of a small performing venue - probably because it takes an arena to contain that which she brings into the room. Opening with an almost volatile "Sir Duke," Ms. Darrow took immediate control of the stage, the room, the band, and the audience as if to say, "Mama's here, you can all sit back and relax because I've got this." And she did. Jessica Darrow was born for this, and, on Saturday night, she was living it. Groovy and glitzy, elegant and edgy, unadulterated and uninhibited, Jessica stomped around the stage singing everything from rock and roll to musical theater, with some r&b and jazz thrown in for good measure, and her take-no-prisoners attitude served her well, and the audience that could not stop screaming for her. With this kind of attitude toward entertaining, with this kind of ferocity for performing, with this kind of daring-do, there was no other choice in life for Jessica Darrow but to be a star - and although at the (essential) start of her career, the writing is on the wall, and stardom awaits.

Acting in a continual monologue with her audience, playing with them and acting for them (especially in a number from Mulan that became an audience sing-a-long), Jessica Darrow made her way through her various genres of music, with apparent affection for show tunes by Jason Robert Brown, Styne & Sondheim, Kander & Ebb, and Rodgers & Hart, Darrow excelled when it came to the jazz and r&b stylings. While her instincts on numbers like "Some People" and "Chief, Cook, and Bottle Washer" were on en pointe, while her acting on these performances was well-informed, her vocals could lean into a questionable place, not necessarily of pitch, but of placement. It wasn't constant, and much of each musical theater performance was working for the singing actress - just, now and then, the energy, the power, the instinct to belt as hard as the emotion told her to, turned the tones hard, effectively negating the nuance for which she is perfectly capable. Conversely, when it was time to sing Corinne Bailey Rae's "Like a Star" and Amy Winehouse's "What is it About Men?", Jessica Darrow had found her sweet spot, sounding spectacular in her glorious, guttural low notes. This is a voice made for jazz and the emotions that flavor it; in a world full of screlters pushing too hard and singing too high, Jessica Darrow's raspy low tones are golden and divine. Equally effective for Darrow were quiet moments of introspection in Liza Minnelli's "My Own Space" and vulnerable self-expression in her self-penned "Make It Clean," as well as a loving duet with close friend and fellow star-on-the-rise Mason Alexander Park. Darrow was, in fact, a mass of ebullience when it came to the shining of the spotlight on other people, praising her fabulous band (especially Musical Director Ashley Grace Ryan), calling out to her drama teacher, seated in the house, and flirtatiously comparing nail polish with chummy guest artist guitarist Ebban Maeda. Of all the star qualities the entertainer and storyteller possesses, what stands out the most is love: love of life, love art, love the people around her, be they family or strangers who have come to basque in the glow of her fabulosity. Jessica Darrow is definitely loving this time in her life. And it is definitely loving her right back.

The adventure has begun.

The SURFACE PRESSURE band was Ashley Grace Ryan, Eric Wheeler, Usman Idrees Salahuddin, and Ebban Maeda.

Surface Pressure was produced by Jessica Darrow and Ali J. Berkowitz

Find great shows to see at the 54 Below website HERE.

HERE is the Jessica Darrow website, THIS is Jessica's YouTube channel, find the Darrow Twitter account HERE, and VIEW this Jessica Darrow Instagram page.

Jessica Darrow gets a five out of five microphones rating for performing her entire show without the use of a lyric sheet, tablet, or music stand.

Photos by Stephen Mosher

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