“Christine Ebersole with Billy Stritch: I’ll Be Home for Christmas” at 54 Below (Photo: Kit Kittle & Bill Westmoreland)
The holidays are in full swing at 54 Below where Christine Ebersole and Billy Stritch have launched their new show I’ll Be Home for Christmas with the attendant warmth, cheer, and tinge of melancholy the chilly season brings.
The duo is well into their second decade of making music together, having met doing the revival of 42nd Street in 2001 and then paired up by their mutual lawyer a few years later. They have an easy rapport, though their cabaret personas feel a bit measured and professional. There’s not a lot of joking around, just some light banter and an intense focus on the music.
But that’s suited to Ebersole’s majestic voice. Her pristine tone cuts through the room like a laser – one you can feel zapping everyone around you just as it gets to you. Couple that with one glance from those piercing eyes and you can’t deny the power of this incredible woman. She has such command over the stage, even when referring to herself as a daffy blonde. And she may be, but on stage, she’s a master.
The holiday selections on the set list steer away from the typical standards. “Winter Wonderland” closes the show, followed by an affecting encore of “Silent Night.” Otherwise, Ebersole and Stritch opt for fare like “Winter Weather” by Earl Brown and Tucker Freeman in a medley with Irving Berlin’s “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm” and a jazzy, syncopated arrangement of “My Favorite Things” from The Sound of Music.
A bewitching rendition of Claude and Ruth Thornhill’s “Snowfall” allows Ebersole to bring out the chill in her voice. The standout of the holiday fare, though, is a breathtaking interpretation of Joni Mitchell’s “River”. Ebersole’s vocal range fits so perfectly in Mitchell’s melody and she gets the heartache behind the lyric. It made me crave an entire evening of Ebersole singing Mitchell.
There is also a section of the show devoted to Ebersole’s two Tony-winning roles. From 42nd Street, there are the delightful selections “You’re Getting to Be a Habit with Me” and “We’re in the Money”. Ebersole also sings “Lullaby of Broadway”, which means all the more when sung by this legend. Stritch solos on “I Only Have Eyes for You”, displaying both his crooner voice and exceptional piano skills.
Ebersole speaks with great fondness about her time playing both Edies in Grey Gardens. Almost twenty years later, the energy in the room still shifts as she takes on Edith Beale’s voice, welcoming us to her family estate for her daughter’s engagement party. We all sat up a little straighter in our chairs, we all leaned in a little more. Scott Frankel and Michael Korie’s score is so finely tailored to Ebersole’s instrument, apparent no better than in “Will You”.
She then switches to the other Edie, her daughter, to sing the seasonally appropriate “Another Winter in a Summer Town” in a medley with a song she did not sing in the show, “Drift Away.” This interpolation of “Drift Away” works very well when the song is inserted between verses of “Another Winter”, not so much when it comes back at the climax and disrupts the emotional devastation of “Another Winter”’s closing. Still, though, what a treat to hear Ebersole sing these tunes live again.
In 2015, I found myself in New York, alone, on Thanksgiving. Luckily for me, I saw that Ebersole was performing at Birdland and immediately bought a ticket. When I went in, she was sitting at a corner of the bar, finishing a beverage with a paper umbrella. She then quickly ducked backstage before giving me one of the greatest Thanksgivings of my life. This isn’t my first holiday season being enraptured by Ebersole’s talent and it definitely won’t be my last.