By Ron Fassler . . .

It had to have been sheer coincidence that within 24 hours, I found myself at 54 Below seeing individual shows from two of Broadway’s most outstanding leading men, each of whom made the decision to just wing it. Perhaps it’s in the zeitgeist, but Santino Fontana on Sunday and Christopher Sieber on Monday, left it to chance for audiences to choose the order of songs they came prepared to sing. In selecting numbers written on slips of paper out a box and letters from the alphabet contained in sealed envelopes, respectively, a fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants evening, in both cases, was created as if from thin air. The results turned out unstructured and surprisingly not at all chaotic.

Sieber had nine songs at the ready. That it prompted a meaningful flow was serendipity yes, but also came intuitively out of his improvisational skills taking center stage. An expert storyteller, every song prompted an anecdotal memory that spanned his whole life from childhood to the present, bizarrely finding a natural order. The first song, “Quiet,” from Matlida, sprang out of his telling of being bullied as a teenager and one of his last songs brought things up to date with his recent sobriety, followed by a rousing rendition of “Those Were the Days.” This old warhorse of a tune had a hit recording in 1968 and had caught everyone up in its nostalgia. Sieber embraced every single thing that spontaneously came up and used it to his benefit. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Possessed of a wonderful singing instrument, Sieber is in fine voice these days. His career dates back to his Broadway debut in Beauty and the Beast, where he replaced as Gaston. In a side note: he met his husband Kevin Burrows in that production (he played a cheese grater). Sieber also replaced in Chicago and Thoroughly Modern Millie, then finally found himself in the original cast of a great big hit in 2005, the Tony Award winning Best Musical Spamalot. Of its upcoming Broadway production, he quipped, “You know you’re getting older when a show you were in is being revived on Broadway twenty years later.” Sieber was Lord Farquaad in Shrek (Tony nominated), Trent in The Prom and most recently Harry in Company (second Tony nom). All told, he’s been in a dozen Broadway shows since 1997 with his (hopefully) next one an upcoming musical version of the 1992 film comedy Death Becomes Her, which is trying out in Chicago next spring.

At 54 Below, his song choices were first rate. He cleverly took two songs from other characters in shows in which he’s appeared, the Principal’s song, “We Look to You,” from The Prom, and “Tomorrow from Annie. Being cast as Daddy Warbucks prompted the memory of the phone call from his agent and another story of “you know you’re getting old when…”

Good humor prevailed and Sieber used the audience effectively on “Ya Got Trouble,” where he weaved throughout the crowd on his opener singing “It’s A Most Unusual Day” (slinging his arm over my shoulder on that one, I can now say we’ve actually met). His musical director Paul Staroba on piano was an intricate part of what made the evening work, providing excellent accompaniment all night.

His second to last song, the romantic “Song of the Sand” from La Cage Aux Folles was supplemented by his telling how he took over very last minute in the most recent Broadway revival after being ambushed by Harvey Fierstein. His last song, “Show People” from Curtains was a rouser in only the way a John Kander melody can provide, and his encore was the great “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” that finishes Spamalot and, once again, brought the audience together, this time for some group whistling.

Though Ira Gershwin wasn’t represented as one of the evening’s roster of songwriters, I couldn’t help exiting 54 Below calling up the lyric, “Who could ask for anything more?”

Christopher Sieber was at 54 Below, 254 W 54th Street, NYC. For the full calendar of upcoming events, please visit: https://54below.org/calendar/

Photos: Melissa Griegel Photography