Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Jessica Walker’s Suzy Solidor bio-play ALL I WANT IS ONE NIGHT is tastefully erotic, intimately musical

• By drediman
• June 22, 2018
• No Comments

Jessica Walker leads “All I Want Is One Night”, a Brits Off Broadway offering at 59E59 Theaters.

Last night, I caught Jessica Walker’s latest musical portrait All I Want Is One Night at 59E59 Theaters. The show – one of the final offerings of this year’s Brits Off Broadway festival – is an interesting hybrid of a show. It’s certainly influenced by cabaret, but the show is also a serious attempt at dramatic storytelling. The show depicts Suzy Solidor, a real life French chanteuse whose fierce, stubborn independence lands her lover after lover (men, yes, but mostly women). It’s therefore no surprise that long-term relationships elude her over the decades. What ultimately becomes clear in Ms. Walker’s intimate, music-heavy bio-play is that Ms. Solidor is really only in love with herself, as manifested by the plethora of portraits (many of them painted by famous artists) of herself she’s commissioned and vainly surrounded herself with.

Ms. Walker (who wrote and stars as the show’s central songstress) is, as always, an alluring presence, and she’s particularly seductive in All I Want Is One Night. Most notably, I applaud the frank but witty sexuality exuded by the piece. Indeed, many of the song lyrics are spiced with some rather risqué allusions – some merely suggestive, others tantalizingly less so. A part of me could have done away with the Ms. Solidor backstory and the elaborate flashbacks and flashforwards it requires, especially in a production with a running time of just over an hour. Simply having the silky-voiced Ms. Walker soulfully perform these songs in a cabaret setting would have sufficed; sometimes less is more. That being said, she’s wonderfully supported by two fine actresses – Rachel Austin and Alexandra Mathie – who play the various women and artists in her life, as well as game music director Joseph Atkins.

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ALL I WANT IS ONE NIGHT
Off-Broadway, Musical
Brits Off Broadway at 59E59 Theaters
1 hour, 10 minutes (without an intermission)
Through July 1