Steppin' Out at 54Below: DEREK KLENA
Derek Klena is just 33 and in his prime. A Broadway tenor with baritone-forward notes (a “baritenor,” think John Raitt) — the guy has sung his way from Wicked to The Bridges of Madison County, Anastasia (where I liked him best), Jagged Little Pill (scoring a Tony nomination), and a long stretch in and out and then back in again Moulin Rouge!.
I thought I would check him out up close at 54Below.
I can now report firsthand that Mr. Klena is, in fact, tall, not remotely dark, and really handsome, with a boyish affability and vocal chops to burn. He opened his set demi-crooning “Love Like This,” by a Nashville-based, Christian-faithed, folk singer-songwriter named Ben Rector (I had to look him up). An ultra earnest paean to love “since you’ve been around,” the love focus was Mr. Klena’s cabaret act theme: the exhausting, yet inexhaustible love of parenting very young kids. Of course, he segued instantly into “Dear Theodosia,” Hamilton’s own paen to first-time fatherhood. Both paeans were sung with blissful baritenor resonance and doting dedication to Mr. Klena’s newborn and toddler sons, respectively.
“Dancing Through Life” followed; a gimme, really, Mr. Klena has sung Wicked’s prince anthem before, both on Broadway and at 54Below “Prince Party”s, but, what the heck, the guy is Fiyero personified, as he himself admitted.
“Hey Little Buddy” was a nice unexpected next; a song of desperation sung by a male stripper to…well, his “Little Buddy.” The song was plucked by Klena from a musical of the 2012 movie Magic Mike, written by the esteemed Next to Normal music team of Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey, that Klena helped workshop pre-pandemic, before the project, uh, deflated. He sang it poignantly.
“My Petersburg” followed, Mr. Klena’s big moment in Anastasia; a belting Broadway ode, sung fabulously. “My Petersburg” stopped the show cold at 54Below, as it did the night I first heard Mr. Klena sing it back in 2017. He then pivoted to another of his Broadway “hits,” the soul-baring “Perfect” from Jagged Little Pill, which, as I said, helped earn him a well-deserved Tony nomination.
The splendid Ashley Loren, from Moulin Rouge!, joined Mr. Klena at this point for the “Elephant Medley” from that mass medley of a Broadway musical. They then dueted delightedly on Wicked’s “As Long As Your Mine.” Their chemistry was palpable.
Mr. Klena basically got his start in New York in the excellent, under-rated 2012 Off-Broadway musical that also brought the composers Pasek & Paul to our attention here (certainly mine): Dogfight, derived from the wonderful 1991 film about sailors on the town brutally discovering what true beauty is. Mr. Klena sang the guts out of “Before It’s Over,” a fine ballad from that show. It was then back to Moulin Rouge! for another medley, or rather a mixtape of Moulin Rouge! tunes that Mr. Klena’s older young son, Dax, digs. Ben Folds’ “The Luckiest” was Mr. Klena’s wistful closer, a hymn of pure Dad gratitude, before encoring with a cute “I’m Just Ken,” from Barbie, which cut a little close to home because he just is Ken, a little.
Every one of these songs was sung to perfection. I mean it. Mr. Klena was vocally perfect. I enjoyed his vocalese immensely. But I also began to crave a touch of imperfection; some material that did not fit quite so perfectly, that he wasn’t quite so comfortable in. A challenge. A stretch. How about Billy Bigelow’s “Soliloquy” from Carousel? The ultimate Dad song, but a dark one.