St Louis Daily
by Sarah Fenske / April, 2025
Midnight Company impresario Joe Hanrahan is back with another jukebox musical at Central West End cabaret The Blue Strawberry this month - and, like Hanrahan’s previous smash-hit show about Linda Ronstadt, Just One Look, this one could run a long, long time.
THIS WILL BE opened last Friday to what Blue Strawberry owner Jim Dolan calls “a rapturous response from a sold-out house.” The three-person cast features Dereis Lambert as Nat King Cole, Christina Yancy as Natalie Cole, and Kimmie Kidd singing the tunes the younger Cole made famous.
Hanrahan tells us the idea came after Kidd performed one part of a famous Judy Garland/Barbara Streisand duet in a previous Midnight Company show and mentioned she was dying to play Cole in a cabaret setting. Turns out Hanrahan knew just the space - and magic was made. “Kimmie did a 20-year stint in Vegas performing in all sorts of things,” Hanrahan tells us. “She’s been a strong part of several productions since coming back, and just won her first Theatre Circle award. But I told her that with her performance in this show, she would have to face up to the fact that she was now a star.”
Ladue News
by Mark Bretz / April, 2025
Story: THIS WILL BE sub-titled “The Spirit and Soul of Natalie Cole,” is a musical biography of the talented daughter of two accomplished, African-American show-business veterans. Natalie’s mother was Maria Hawkins Ellington, a singer with the Duke Ellington Orchestra, and her father was the renowned Nat “King” Cole, a smooth singer and jazz pianist who achieved popularity despite ongoing bigotry in the United States in the mid-20th century.
Referring to her family as “the black Kennedys,” Natalie was shocked and broken by the death of her father to cancer in 1964, when she was just 14 years old. In her own career, Natalie went on to achieve success in several musical genres, including soul, rhythm and blues, jazz, and pop.
She became an accomplished singer and songwriter, winning numerous Grammy Awards for a variety of albums. Her acclaim culminated in her technologically wondrous “duets” with her late father on the album, “Unforgettable…with Love,” which won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year.
Along the way, Natalie Cole had numerous battles with drug addiction, and a troubled marital history, with three marriages all ending in divorce. She died in 2015.
Highlights:Joe Hanrahan, founder and artistic director of The Midnight Company, joins forces once again with cabaret impresario Jim Dolan and The Blue Strawberry for a 75-minute, one-act show that showcases the talents of Kimmie Kidd as the “public Natalie,” Christina Yancy as the “private Natalie,” and Dereis Lambert as Nat “King” Cole.
Other info: Kidd provides the star turn in the performance, carefully and powerfully shaping several of Natalie Cole’s most well-known hits, such as “Inseparable,” “Sophisticated Lady,” “If I Had to Choose,” and the title tune in her persuasive, signature fashion. She uses her pronounced vocal instrument with panache as she gets to the heart of the lyrics in each of those songs and others, demonstrating how Natalie was able to transcend several genres and make music her own way while also honoring her father.
An upbeat, rocking version of The Rolling Stones’ “Honky Tonk Woman” depicts Natalie’s early days as a backup singer for r&b artist Jerry Butler, while Natalie’s cover version of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘B’ side wonderful number, “Pink Cadillac” shows her swaying the audience with her lively interpretation of The Boss’ lyrics.
The show is presented more or less in chronological fashion, with Kidd serving as narrator as well as singing on most of the show’s selection of songs. Sometimes, she performs in tandem with Yancy as the “private Natalie,” who shares moments on stage with the agreeable Lambert as accomplished singer and pianist Nat “King” Cole. All three appear poised and comfortable in their roles under Hanrahan’s watchful direction.
Providing sound musical support are music director and pianist Colin Healey, and drummer Bradley Rohlf, the founders of Fly North Theatricals and proprietors of the Greenfinch Theater & Dive bar in south St. Louis.
THIS WILL BE has another scheduled performance at the Blue Strawberry on Friday, April 18, but don’t be surprised if it pops up on the calendar again sometime soon. It’s an entertaining and informative retrospective of Natalie Cole’s considerable and wide-reaching career.
Snoop's Theatre Thoughts
by Michelle Kenyon ("Snoop") / April, 2025
Joe Hanrahan’s Midnight Company has another “Cabaret Theatre” piece in its repertoire now, having just opened at the Blue Strawberry as a showcase for the works of a celebrated singer (well, two really), and serving as a showcase for three excellent performers, and particularly the stunningly talented headliner, Kimmie Kidd. Structured as something of a staged documentary, This Will Be: The Spirit & Soul of Natalie Cole is a fairly comprehensive overview of Cole’s music and career. It’s also a tribute to themes of nostalgia, growing up, and parents’ enduring influence on their children.
The structure is a little odd, but it works, especially as a vehicle for the Kidd’s remarkable talents and presence. Kidd is essentially the narrator, telling Cole’s story and singing most of the songs, as well as sharing some personal remembrances of “Little Kimmie” discovering Cole’s music as a child growing up in St. Louis. The role of Natalie Cole is acted primarily by Christina Yancy, who along with Dareis Lambert as Natalie’s father Nat King Cole–sings backup along with Kidd on a series of Natalie’s hit songs like the memorable title song, as well as “Inseparable”, “I Live For Your Love” and more, including a tribute to her late father on the classic “Unforgettable”, which Natalie recorded as a duet with her father’s recorded vocals, and which Kidd performs her with Lambert, who has a few memorable solo moments including the Nat King Cole classic “Nature Boy”.
Backed by an excellent combo featuring music director Colin Healy on piano, Bradley Rohlf on percussion and backing vocals, Kidd is the undisputed star of this show, although Lambert and Yancy lend excellent support as well. Kidd sings Cole’s classic songs with energy, style, and sheer vocal power and excellence. The story of Cole’s life is also compelling, as young Natalie grew up fairly sheltered as the daughter of one of America’s first “mainstream” Black celebrities, and then discovered more of the world after her father’s death when she was a teenager and she grew up and attended college in Massachusetts and became involved in a more varied music scene including rock ‘n roll. The story covers her relationship with first husband and musical collaborator Marvin Yancy, along with struggles with addiction and the continuing influence of her father throughout her life, even long after his death. Front and center throughout is Kidd and the memorable soundtrack of Natalie Cole’s enduring hits.
It’s a thoroughly entertaining evening, especially for fans of Natalie Cole and Nat King Cole. There’s only one more performance scheduled, but judging from the full, enthusiastic audience on opening night, I won’t be surprised if this gets additional dates, like previous cabaret theatre productions from The Midnight Company. It’s a fun, educational celebration of musical talent from two legendary singers as well as the remarkable talent of its headlining performer.
HEC Media
by Bob Wilcox / April, 2025
Joe Hanrahan loves theatre. He loves to see it, to act in it, to write it, to direct it. But lately he has been tempted by the cabaret space at The Blue Strawberry. Cabaret is perhaps a kind of theatre, but it usually lacks some theatre elements. It usually features one performer, who may be acting but usually is acting himself or herself, not some imaginary character. It may have a story, but usually a story from that performer’s life, not an imaginary story. And the focus of the performance is less on that story than on the songs that the performer sings.
So Hanrahan has come up with a kind of hybrid of drama and cabaret. He writes a script, usually directs it, often acts in it. Sometimes he is acting himself, sometimes not. But those with him on the stage are not acting themselves. Perhaps they are acting an historical figure, usually a musician, so we have cabaret’s emphasis on music, well integrated into but dominant over the story, dramatic as it may be.
So it is with the production Hanrahan’s Midnight Company opened at The Blue Strawberry on April 11. If you missed it then — or if you saw it then and want to see it again — it will be repeated on April 18 at The Blue Strawberry. If it shares the fate of many of the previous hybrid plays-cabarets, it will be repeated again and again.
The latest of these shows is titled This Will Be: The Spirit and Soul of Natalie Cole. And so it is. Cole made enough songs famous to fill several evenings of cabaret, and her life had enough ups and downs to make several dramas.
As she sometimes said, her family was “the black Kennedys.” Her mother, Maria Hawkins Ellington Cole, sang with both the Duke Ellington and the Count Basie Orchestras, made records, hosted a TV show, and raised five children. Cole’s father Nat King Cole was famous as a jazz pianist and even more as a jazz and popular singer.
Natalie was close to her father, and his death when she was only 15 had a continuing impact on her life. But she won a Grammy with her first album and stayed a star the rest of her life with R&B, moving on to pop and jazz, and her greatest success in the album “Unforgettable … with Love,” in which she joined with her father in some of his recordings.
Hanrahan has told her story with three performers, all excellent singers and actors. The ever delightful and joyful Kimmie Kidd is a narrator and the voice of the public Natalie. Christina Yancy, who has frequently performed with The Black Rep, plays the private Natalie as she survived marriages and two bouts of drug addiction. Dereis Lambert, another Black Rep veteran, becomes Nat King Cole when her father appears in the story, and Lambert joins with the other cast members to provide a full and lovely combination of voices.
Colin Healy of Fly North Theatricals and Greenfinch Theatre & Dive Bar is on the piano as Music Director. Bradley Rolf, who will direct Midnight’s St. Nicholas in the fall, is the percussionist.
The Midnight Company’s This Will Be is a solid and enjoyable production.
Broadway World
by James Lindhorst / April, 2025
In his cabaret story telling endeavors, Midnight Company’s Joe Hanrahan has taken on the song books of Linda Ronstadt and July Garland. He has penned a few character driven cabaret jukebox musicals with fictional stories that have included rock ‘n roll classics, jazz standards, and award-winning movie themes. Hanrahan consistently sells out cabaret venue The Blue Strawberry with his concept musicals starring some of the most talented local singers and musicians.
He found lightning in a bottle with his first cabaret effort JUST ONE LOOK. He and actor/singer Kelly Howe are now in their third year of playing to full houses telling the story of Linda Ronstadt’s career in a show chock full of Linda Ronstadt hits. Baby Boomers and early Gen-Xers are filling seats to nod their heads along with Ronstadt’s nostalgic rock hits “You’re No Good,” “It’s So Easy,” “When Will I Be Loved,” and more.
Now Hanrahan is taking on a new musical genre with the soul music of legendary singer Natalie Cole in his new show THIS WILL BE: The Spirit & Soul & Songs of Natalie Cole. He has once again teamed up with the uber talented Colin Healy as music director following their success working together on JACEY’S JAZZ JOINT and MOVIE MUSIC.
THIS WILL BE stars recent St. Louis Theater Circle Award winner Kimmie Kidd as narrator and lead singer. Kidd takes on all of Natalie Cole’s biggest hits including “Pink Cadillac,” “I Live For Your Love,” “Our Love,” and the titular “This Will Be.” Kidd, and her co-star Christina Yancy, both have a luminous presence on the stage.
Yancy’s role is to react to Kidd’s narration in character, first as Cole’s mother, and then as Natalie Cole. Kidd and Yancy tell of Cole’s lifelong struggle with addiction and self-doubt as she tried to define herself in the shadow of her famous father. While most of Cole’s fans came to hear her Music, it is the dramatic presentation of Cole’s survival story that makes the story sing.
THIS WILL BE is the best narrative biographical script Hanrahan has penned for his cabaret concept musicals. Cole’s redemptive story of beating addiction several times throughout her life is moving and Yancy and Kidds’ storytelling is inspired. The script speaks of Cole’s death in 2015, but did not reveal the cause leaving one to wonder about the cause of her death. Natalie Cole died at age 65 from heart failure stemming from complications of pulmonary arterial hypertension.
Actor Deries Lambert supports Kidd and Yancy by taking on the roles of Nat King Cole and Natalie Cole’s first husband Marvin Yancy. He also sings background vocals with Christina Yancy and percussionist Bradley Rohlf. Lambert is a striking presence singing a couple of Nat King Cole’s biggest hits. In the sweetest musical moment of the show, he duets with Kidd on Natalie Cole’s 7-time Grammy winning hit “Unforgettable.”
It is in that moment, when Kidd breaks into “Unforgettable,” that she finds the vocal sweet spot in an evening of enjoyable musical moments. She, Yancy, Lambert, Healy, and Rohlf are electric when they jam on Cole’s more upbeat music, especially the cover versions of The Rolling Stones’ “Honky Tonk Woman” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Pink Cadillac.”
THIS WILL BE: The Spirit & Soul & Music of Natalie Cole played to two sold out houses at The Blue Strawberry in Midtown St. Louis. Ticket demand was strong. Hanrahan, Healy, Kidd and the rest of the company may have found another cabaret concept musical with long running potential. THIS WILL BE is especially enjoyable for fans of the late Natalie Cole who will likely come for the music but will leave inspired by Natalie Cole’s story of redemption.
Now Playing 