Brian d’Arcy James at 54 Below




Inside many male Broadway singers is a barely suppressed rock ’n’ roll wild man who dreams of exploding before thousands of screaming fans.


Brian d’Arcy James, whose many Broadway credits include playing Sidney Falco in “Sweet Smell of Success” and the title role in “Shrek the Musical,” seized his opportunity to detonate on Tuesday evening at 54 Below, where he made his New York concert debut. A septet led by the pianist Dan Lipton sharpened Mr. James’s profile as an energetic closet rocker.


The recently opened club is a far cry from a concrete arena, so instead of thousands of screaming fans there were about 100 cheering supporters. Mr. James is neither a guitarist nor a hopped-up piano man. But he imparted a charge to songs by Billy Joel (“Worse Comes to Worst,” “She’s Got a Way”; Squeeze (“Tempted”); and Phil Collins-era Genesis (“That’s All”). And the club’s state-of-the-art sound system lent the music an extra punch and clarity. The standout number was Mr. Joel’s early “Everybody Loves You Now,” a self-mocking bark of show business triumph that acknowledges the perils of fame.


With hit shows like “Memphis” and “Rock of Ages” Broadway is a lot more welcoming to rock than it used to be, and so is cabaret in its more modest way. But there is still a big difference in noise level, setting and audience behavior. Mr. James’s sense of humor helped him straddle both worlds comfortably.


His show, “Under the Influence,” is really about being an eternal teenager. Mr. James, who grew up in Saginaw, Mich., said he had a life-changing epiphany when he saw Mr. Joel in concert in 1983. At the time he refrained from broadcasting his discovery because his peers didn’t appreciate Mr. Joel. He remembered having a box of cassettes by Adam Ant, Asia and Cheap Trick.


“But I’m not pretending I was cool,” he said, before mentioning that he was photographed in costume for the uncool “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” on the front page of a local paper. He offered a deadpan rendition of Bobby Sherman’s 1970 hit, “Julie Do Ya Love Me?”


“Saratoga Summer Song,” a Kate McGarrigle ballad about the hedonistic summers of youth, completed the show’s vision of a grown-up looking back with sheepish wistfulness at a time of life that it is etched in our memories more sharply than any other.