Joshua Lance Dixon: Pack of One

Joshua Lance Dixon

Pack of One

Tom Rolla’s Gardenia, West Hollywood, CA, April 29, 2017

Reviewed by Elliot Zwiebach for Cabaret Scenes

Joshua Lance Dixon sings with an intense focus and passion, yet there’s an innate sweetness in his vocals — and those vocals are very, very solid. Watch his eyes while he sings, and you’ll see how much he believes the emotions of the song.

Dixon sticks very close to the basic melody lines of each song — allowing audiences to hear them as they were written — but he plays with tempos a bit. In his West Coast debut — a show about the infamous Rat Pack — his approach worked particularly well on two standards usually sung at a much faster speed, but performed here as ballads, which enabled him to dig deeper into the emotional core of each: “Too Close for Comfort” (Jerry Bock/Larry Holofcener/George David Weiss) and “That Old Black Magic” (Johnny Mercer/Harold Arlen), both sung in smooth, beautiful versions  that allowed him to weave his own particular magic.

He was also superb in a sweet, nicely centered version of “Mr. Bojangles” (Jerry Jeff Walker) that gave him a chance to exercise his acting chops by putting the song across in a self-reflective manner. And there was a similar sweetness in a simple, intimate version of “Everybody Loves Somebody” (Irving Taylor/Ken Lane).

Dixon was also terrific in a series of mashups — arranged by Steven Ray Watkins — that had him alternating verses and lyric lines on  “Luck Be a Lady” (Frank Loesser) with “Who’s Got the Action?” (George Duning/Jack Brooks);  “What Kind of Fool Am I?” with “Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me)” (both by Anthony Newley/Leslie Bricusse); and “Come Fly with Me” (Sammy Cahn/Jimmy Van Heusen) with “Fly Me to the Moon” (Bart Howard), in which he displayed utter joy singing about love.

He brought Musical Director Ron Snyder into the act beyond piano accompaniment on “Me and My Shadow” (Billy Rose/Al Jolson/Dave Dreyer), with Snyder showing off his sweet pipes on melody while Dixon sang harmony, then switching off with a counter melody written in 1962 by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen — a lovely, surprising moment in a lovely show.

As he delivered his thank-yous at the end of the evening, Dixon got choked up about doing his first show in Los Angeles, urging the audience to “pack all you can into one lifetime and learn from it all.”  He said he planned to donate part of the proceeds from the evening to The Actors Fund, which he said helped him years ago when he needed money for food.

Tags: Al Jolson, American Songbook, Anthony Newley, Bart Howard, Billy Rose, Broadway Musicals, CA, Cabaret, Cabaret Reviews, Cabaret Scenes, CD, Clubs, Come Fly with Me, Composers, Dave Dreyer, Elliot Zwiebach, Everybody Loves Somebody, Fly Me to the Moon, Frank Loesser, George David Weiss, George Duning, Great American Songbook, Harold Arlen, Irving Taylor, Jack Brooks, Jazz, Jazz Singers, Jerry Bock, Jerry Jeff Walker, Jimmy Van Heusen, Johnny Mercer, Joshua Lance Dixon, Ken Lane, Larry Holofcener, Leslie Bricusse, lyricists, Me and My Shadow, Mr. Bojangles, Musicals, Musicians, Nightclubs, Pack of One, Popular Song, Rat Pack, Revues, Ron Snyder, Sammy Cahn, Show Tunes, Singers, Songbook, Standards, Steven Ray Watkins, Supper Clubs, That Old Black Magic, The Actors Fund, Tom Rolla’s Gardenia, Too Close for Comfort, Venues, Vocalists, West Coast, west hollywood, What Kind of Fool Am I, Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me), Who’s Got the Action?

Category: Cabaret Reviews, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Cabaret Reviews, Regional