On June 3rd, the Manhattan cabaret palace The Green Room 42 was the hottest place to be in New York City, almost as if to foreshadow the rising temperatures of the forthcoming season.  Broadway performers Nicolas Dromard and Desireé  Davar joined forces for Superheroes in Love: Summer Lovin’. Dromard owns an impressive resume as a performer in some of musical theater’s best-loved hits, including Wicked, Mary Poppins, and, most recently, the national tour and Broadway productions of Jersey Boys in the role of “Tommy De Vito”.  Davar has performed om all over the world, from New York to Japan. Two of her recent roles have been “Tiger Lily” in Peter Pan and “Sally Bowles” in Cabaret. Dromard and Davar have both made names for themselves in the entertainment business.  But to the tight-knit New York City cabaret community, where the collective talent is truly infinite, the pair are known simply as “Nic and Desi”.  The two are favorites at some of Manhattan’s most prestigious open mic events.  But for those in the seats of The Green Room 42 who hadn’t yet gotten the chance to see and hear either Nic or Desi (or both of them together), some facts became clear: Dromard and Davar both excel at singing, dancing, and comedy.  Let’s flesh that out a bit:  Both performers have many moments to shine on their own throughout Superheroes in Love.  Nic has a smooth and mannered yet seductive voice.  Not to be outdone, Desi knows how to hit those challenging notes (More about that later…).  Yet when they sing together, their voices really complement each other.  They can also dance in synch– and make it look easy!  And… they know how to make the audience laugh!  In the first number, the “Summer Lovin’ Swing“, they tell the mirthful story of how they first met, ultimately segueing a medley of pop culture chestnuts into the eternal “He said, she said” opening number from Grease. The audience, as you can imagine, ate it up– although they restrained from chiming in with “Tell me more! Tell me more!” The reaction was so wild, in fact, that all I could wonder was, “How are they going to top this opening?” Before we continue, it should be worth starting one more fun fact: Nic and Desi are more than just creative collaborators.  They are… MARRIED!

Yes, Dromard and Davar are husband and wife; as we learn in the show, for exactly seven years.  The idea of a married pair of performers– particular a couple both as talented and as easy on the eyes as this duo–is appealing in its own right.  But this pair doesn’t simply rest on their unique true story to make their show a standout. Their marital banter is indeed fun to watch, such as when Desi gives Nic an artfully angled kick in the keister at the end of I Get a Kick Out of You or when, later in the show, they share their “secret for a happy marriage”, via Whatever DESI Wants. (Hint, hint!).  Ultimately, however, it always comes back to… the TALENT! Their duet of Slow Boat to China is delightful, and the pair are fifty shades of delectable when they croon THAT moment in Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You: “I love you, BAY-by,,,!”  After that song, the audience is treated to La Vie en Rose, with Nic kicking off the song in French. We learn that this was the song that Desi walked down the aisle to. When Desi joins him (in English), the performance becomes transcendent.  The audience is seduced in two languages; The late great Ms. Piaf would “approuver”!

The Special Guest in Nic and Desi’s show was Sean Patrick Murtagh, a new friend of the Nic and Desi and a double MAC Award winner. The colorful singer shared a preview for his upcoming show Beautiful Girls: A Tribute to Sondheim’s Divas. His selection was the hauntingly beautiful Girls of Summer… and, as everyone in the audience would agree, Murtagh did it VERY well.

Murtagh wasn’t the only Special Guest.  The audience was also treated to an appearance by… LIZA! The legendary star showed up to sing Flowers: ” I can buy myself flowers, write my name in the sand. Talk to myself for hours; Say things you don’t understand! I can take myself dancing, and I can hold my own hand. Yeah, I can love me better than you can!”  It was funny, sassy, and complete with all those famous Liza-isms that we all know and love, right on down to that over-the-top, show-stealing final note.  But of course, you can’t have “Liza” without her signature song: Cabaret. “Liza” didn’t stay alone for very long; She was joined by Nic for Money, Money, Money, complete with her shaking those long-suffering hips. (I won’t give away who this mysterious Ms. Minnelli was, but let’s just say that Desi was nowhere to be found while the sequined songstress was on stage. We Won’t Tell Mama…)  Thankfully, Nic can more than hold his own in the hip-shaking department., which comes in very handy when he temporarily leaves that aforementioned “mannered” quality with fabulous abandon for the sexy Higher. (“Because when you go low, and I get higher; When you move back slow, it lights my fire!“) Desi, of course, did reappear for the second half of the show, which gave the audience many more crowd-pleasing numbers.  They included a musical theater medley (“Wicked West Side Story”), a truly dreamy version of Pure Imagination, and Desi’s absolutely lush Come Rain or Come Shine, which elevated the classic from “just” a song to a fine display of her vocal power.  Yes, there was an encore: I won’t reveal what it was, but I will say that it was an enduring pop hit which Nic and Desi were performing for the first time as a duet.  Like any great “first time”, it left us… well, just wanting more!

Nic and Desi’s Superheroes in Love: Summer Lovin’ was highly entertaining: There are only so many ways to say that this husband-and-wife team is talented, but it’s the WAY these use their gifts that made their show so wonderful.  They choreograph their own unique talents, both individually and together, as meticulously as they choreograph their foxtrot or tap dancing.  This pair of Broadway babes may be married seven years, but it was the audience who was “itching”… for another night with Nic and Desi.

Visit .NicandDesi.com and .SuperheroesinLove.com for more!