Friday, June 28th. YOTEL. 570 10th Ave, New York, NY 10036. You walk in. A robot stores your luggage. A pride celebration is in full force on the fourth floor; men and women walk in and out of the same bathroom. The terrace is filled with millennials posing with their various flatbreads. They linger over which filter to pick, as they sip drinks out of neon cups. It’s undeniably 2019. But if you saw Charlie Romo there that evening, you might have thought otherwise.
That’s because that twenty-three year old singer from Brooklyn was leaving an indelible mark on The Green Room 42, this modern hotel’s very new and nostalgic cabaret club; he was debuting his latest show, Roman Candle: The Ultimate Bobby Darin Experience…and boy, did he nail it.
As he walks on stage and opens with “Hello Young Lovers”, you’ll have to do a double take because Charlie Romo is pretty much the spitting image of Bobby Darin, and of course, he has the voice to match. But he’s not simply a reincarnation of the “Mack the Knife” crooner, he brings his own style, and pairs it with the utmost class and what he describes as “Italian American charm.”
He makes sure that every member of his 7-piece band shines, taking the time to praise each musician on the stage. He pauses to shout-out some very special guests in the audience, including Jimmy Scalia, the official archivist of the Bobby Darin Estate and Jack Urbont, the composer of “Manhattan In My Heart,” a never-released 1965 song recorded by Bobby Darin. When the show ends, a long line forms outside the venue, where Charlie thanks each and every person who came to his show.
Besides his all-around good-nature, maybe more than anything, Charlie Romo should be praised for being a great storyteller, an ability sometimes overlooked in a performer’s toolkit. He knows when to be charming and when to be sentimental, when to make a joke and when to tug at your heartstrings. In just an hour and a half, he delivers, with absolute ease, the most intimate look at the career and life of an incomparable legend.
Almost like a play, Charlie’s performance is broken into acts, each with sections of songs. You hear the hits, a jumpin’ rock & roll medley, a marvelous movie soundtrack compilation, and so on. With it, you get in on some Darin history. Throw in Charlie Romo’s deeply personal anecdotes in between it all, and it is certain there is no better person to helm a show like this.
If you ever get a chance to speak with Charlie Romo, he’ll tell you that his mission is to carry the torch of timeless music. The show has to end with “The Curtain Falls,” but not before an encore of “Once In A Lifetime.” As the audience stands up to applaud, you can’t help but feel that you’ve been treated to your very own once in a lifetime…a chance to see Charlie Romo, in 2019, give us his all.
This is his moment, and the torch he’s carrying will only grow brighter and brighter.
