Broadway Preview: Lewis Flinn’s Cabaret

Infinite Variety: Songs, Stories and More

BY CHRISTOPHER BYRNE

When Lewis Flinn is performing (or writing songs for that matter), you’re probably going to want to bookmark your favorite ticket app, so you can be sure not to miss your chance to catch his heartfelt ballads, witty banter, and artistic and uplifting songs.

Flinn was in NYC recently with a dazzling cabaret act that showcased some of his established works—including some seemingly lost pieces pulled from the proverbial trunk to get their first public performance. Flinn is known for his scores for Lysistrata Jones and To WongFoo, which after a world premiere in the UK is headed for Broadway. In fact, the closing number of the show was the final song from the show, “It Will Be Beautiful.” It very likely will be.

Over his career, Flinn has written independently, but he’s also worked closely with his husband Douglas Carter Beane who provided the books for Lysistrata Jones and To Wong Foo and who directed the latter in the UK. (Beane had also written the original screenplay.)

From Lysistrata Jones, Flinn repurposed the song “When She Smiles” as “When He Smiles,” turning it into a lyrical and lovely song about what happens when you find “the one.”

Flinn also had guest stars, including Julie Benko, the headliner from the Connecticut Voice Honors last year, singing “Reach a New Day” from another musical in development called Up with America. It’s the tale of one of those rousing groups of scrubbed young people traveling the country in the 70s to sing about good old American values…and what happens when one begins to question the dogma. (Turns out, as Flinn described, much of this was funded by the Republican Party—propaganda you could tap your toes to.) As always, Benko, who is slated to star in the show as it works its way towards the Great White Way,  delivered the song with power, style, and depth.

The other “special guest” opera star Susanna Phillips lent her magnificent soprano to several works of Flinn’s. To hear that voice in a small cabaret space is a moving experience one can only count oneself grateful to have experienced.

Flinn was accompanied by his longtime music director Brad Simmons and vocalist Biti Strauchn, and the evening was a rare chance to see the development of an artist over three decades, his comfort in a wide range of styles, and, as Noel Coward might have said, a wonderful talent to amuse.

Photo provided by KSA-PR. Used with permission.

Posted June 24, 2025