We all know Jessica Hendy can sing. She’s a well-known Broadway veteran, a graduate of CCM, and a has a reputation as a fierce belter. I knew she’d moved back home to Cincinnati after a New York stint, and I knew she’d moved back to the city a few years ago to give her Broadway career another go.
But I had no idea she’d been through this. It sounds like few people did.
But now, anyone in New York can hear her tell her amazing story of resilience, bravery, and vulnerability in the off-Broadway show, “Walking with Bubbles.” In it, Hendy has collaborated with Brianna Barnes, an amazing performer in her own right, to craft the music for this one-woman show in which she tells the heartwrenching story of living and raising a child alongside someone with mental illness.
In the small AMT Theatre on 45th Street, the audience is a few feet from one of the most emotional tales you’ll hear - and what makes it more remarkable is that it’s all true. Director Richard Hess emphasized the emotional connection with the audience, and Hendy got down on our level a few times to make eye contact. I don’t know how she does it eight times a week, let alone twice in one day.
This is a show that should be produced in regional theatres across the country, especially in Hendy’s hometown of Cincinnati (where I also live.). In fact, it would be a perfect addition to the season at Ensemble Theatre or Playhouse in the Park’s Shelterhouse . . . or even in the versatile Know Theatre. Perhaps there’ll be a bidding war over who gets to produce it. Someone definitely should.
Now, I know it’s easy to make me cry - I am the “sappy critic,” after all. But it’s another thing to make hardened New Yawkers emote . . . yet the woman behind me - who was only there because someone at another show told her not to miss it - was weeping afterward.
To me, that’s the best compliment this show could get.
WALKING WITH BUBBLES runs through June 18th (unless extended) at the AMT Theatre at 354 45th Street. More information and tickets can be found here.