Joe Iconis is sitting at a piano on stage at 54 Below describing a scene from The 40-Year-Old Virgin. He tells us that Steve Carell’s character, Andy, is riding through town pissing everyone off. He’s setting us up to hear his song called, “Andy’s Song” that will be performed by his longtime friend, and star of Be More Chill, George Salazar.
Iconis paints the picture: “Everyone’s honking and there’s crossing guards who are giving him, uh, sh*t… and I didn’t want to say the word sh*t and I don’t know if anyone noticed before I stopped myself before I said, “sh*t” but then I said, “sh*t” and now I’ve said it four times. But it’s a twisted version of Belle from Beauty and The Beast.”
The audience breaks out in the kind of laughter you’d give to a friend who has shared something uniquely private. These nights, aptly named, “Joe Iconis and Family” are a public, yet behind-the-scenes type performance, where Iconis, and some of the biggest names on Broadway, share intimate moments and songs with their eager audience. Iconis’ “Family” is vast but includes boldface names like: Anthony Rapp, Andrew Rannells, Lauren Marcus, and Eric William Morris.
CL: “Joe Iconis and Family” is one of the most fun nights we at TP have ever had at 54 Below. How did it come about?
JI: It initially came out of a desire to have my work on a stage and not want to wait for a producer or a theater to give me “permission.” I’ve always loved seeing live music and I knew I wanted to start doing live gigs that combined elements that I dug from both the cabaret and theater world and the rock’n’roll world.
CL: These nights at 54 Below feel so exclusive and special. How did you create them to be unlike other types of cabaret shows?
JI: When we first started doing the Iconis and Family shows (our first show, called “The Joe Iconis Rock and Roll Jamboree,” was on November 25th 2007 at The Beechman) there just wasn’t any kind of real musical theater concert scene in the way there is now. The stuff that was out there always felt very “recital”-like to me. Like, writers showcasing an evening of their work as an audition to get gigs writing musical versions of popular films.
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