Reeve Carney regularly performs cover shows, but also frequently includes some of his original material at some shows.
Photo provided
Reeve Carney’s vocals of his youngest years of singing superbly lent themselves to a higher octave range.
So he naturally gravitated to a range of female crooners. He’ll exuberantly return to that first love at the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic Cabaret at The Commons concert billed as “Reeve Carney Sings the Divas” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at The Commons downtown.
The intimate performance will feature only him, a guitar and a kick drum.
“I was raised by a really strong caring mother” who was a singer and actress, Carney said, speaking by phone from his home in New York City. “The female artists were the ones I heard on the radio, and they were ones through whom I could sing every note. I could actually pretty easily sing their songs because they were in a higher register.
“With other vocalists like Elvis, I just couldn’t sing any of that.”
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His setlist will include tunes such as “The Ladies Who Lunch,” done by Elaine Stritch; “Losing my Mind,” done by Bernadette Peters; “Maybe This Time” from Liza Minnelli; and, to spice up the mix and genders a bit, a Billy Porter song as well.
There were other male performers with a higher register whom he quickly embraced. He remembers in his childhood years hearing Bobby McFerrin’s megahit “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” in fine falsetto and being transfixed.
The 41-year-old Carney’s divas show, mixed in with a touring schedule that includes a Michael Jackson show, a Queen show, a Beatles show, plus others, “has generated a really great response,” he said. “These are songs that so many people grew up listening to. Plus, I believe that it’s some of the greatest music ever written.”
This summer, when he was offstage, he was frequently on the softball diamond with a Broadway team so gifted vocally that it hurt the ensemble on the field — all because so many had to miss games because of work.
“We weren’t very good, unfortunately,” he said. “But, when I was a kid, I wanted to be a Major League Baseball player.”
Baseball’s loss is Broadway and audience members’ gain. Carney is perhaps best known for originating the role of Orpheus in the original Broadway cast of the Tony Award-winning musical “Hadestown,” with music by U2’s Bono and The Edge. They handpicked Carney for the part. He’s talented enough that he also sings originals in concerts besides the work of so many others.
While he has earned his share of accolades, one would hardly know it from a casual conversation. When asked lightheartedly for example, whether he or his girlfriend and Broadway performer Eva Noblezada (whom he met in “Hadestown”) is the better vocalist, he offered a chuckle, but then a focused and serious response.
“Oh, no, we don’t think like that at all,” he said. “We don’t even sing in front of each other all that much.”
The pair’s first-ever stage duet will come on Sunday in Detroit.
With the talk of his love of presenting his divas show came a question or two about what he generally would avoid.
“The one thing I’m not so nuts about,” he said, “is the very thing that some people might actually expect. And that’s the idea of doing a concert of all traditionally male Broadway songs. It just isn’t as exciting to me.
“I’d rather do something that’s a bit more unexpected.”
About the concert
Who: Broadway performer Reeve Carney in “Reeve Carney Sings the Divas,” from Patti Lapone to Lena Horne.
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday.
Where: The Commons, 300 Wasington St. in downtown Columbus.
Tickets: thecip.org.
