Lena Hall Sings Cafe Carlyle

Sauntering to the stage in a sheer black Zac Posen frock adorned in hot pink peonies, Broadway darling Lena Hall nonchalantly greeted the crowd of adoring dilettantes and nitpicking press before kicking up the jams at the Caf� Carlyle, where she would begin her two-week residency at the illustrious cabaret hotspot.

The Grammy-nominated belter, who was making her debut at the iconic cabaret nightspot with her "Sin and Salvation" show, was quite unassuming even when she sounded like she was full of herself: "I'm Lena Hall. I do what I want," she said with sweet-faced snigger. The energy in the coveted lounge oozed with volcanic carnality and fervor as the spinto soprano howled across 15 songs that make up the 70 minute set of rock 'n roll anthems and torch ditties throughout the night.

Hall and her company of merry men (music director Watt White on guitar, John Deley on keyboards, Lee Nadel on bass and her brother-in-law to-be Brian Fishler on drums) began the night singing Jack White's "Three Women," the opening number from his acclaimed alt-garage blues rock effort "Lazaretto," offering a dazzling and charismatic side of the singer-actress.

With white gardenias in her pulled-up hair, a band of diamonds on one wrist, and hands moving as if they were conjuring spells on the audience, Hall seemed to have a stage persona that split the divide of extraterrestrial glam rock goddess and Billie Holiday wannabe. This was especially evoked on songs like Elton John's 1973 B-Side favorite "Have Mercy on the Criminal," where Hall's voice ached and her body writhed in congenial agony at the climax.

However, if you're looking to get a taste of the singer's identity by purchasing probably one of the hottest cabaret tickets in town, don't expect to take away anything one couldn't dig up on social media. Like her Tony Award-winning portrayal of Yitzhak in John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask's "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," for which she won Best Featured Actress in a Musical when the show was revived in 2014, she doesn't say much.

Instead, similar to her acclaimed role, she let the songs do the talking. Pity, since the San Francisco-born Hall, who's real name is Celina Consuela Gabriella Carvajal, cut her teeth as an emerging ing�nue in "The Toxic Avenger" and the Keith Haring bio-musical "Radiant Baby" before paying her dues as a chorus girl in Broadway shows like the hard-boiled noir sing-along "42nd Street," Frank Wildhorn's "Dracula, the Musical," Disney's "Tarzan" and risking all nine of her lives in "Cats."

When she wasn't fronting her hardcore rock band The Deafening, she was in a proscenium theatre belting show tunes and exercising legit vocal gymnastics eight nights a week. That takes chops. And it would have made an interesting narrative for insiders uninterested in reading her memoirs.

It also takes gusto to pull off this impressive catalogue of songs coalesced and packaged as a product for producers to come knocking at her door. And they would be wrong not to. Regardless of whether or not she could properly execute the numbers, Hall has something money can't by: Taste in excellent music that, if provided the right players (and musical arrangement), could be accomplished anywhere.

Sure, her version of Janelle Mon�e's "Tightrope," came off as glorified karaoke with zero voodoo or dark magic of the original, but was funky and fun; not abhorrent, considering this could have been the first time a rap was ever performed in the prestigious nightspot. Perchance she would benefit from a gaggle of black back-up singers of the "20 Feet From Stardom" variety? Being the case that if she did, her slight obsession with black music, rock 'n roll and soul in their extremes, could become stronger with time.

A perfect example of this was her bold and strangely satisfying performance of Erykah Badu's "Otherside Of The Game." Not only was it a lesson in how one can pay homage to something without cultural appropriation, Hall made an attempt to put her mark on an oft-covered neo-soul classic. Although, the stylish White crooned alongside her, however, it could have benefited with lush, feminine backup vocals.

Her jaw-dropping vocal roars, though still contain a silky sheen to her voice, that brought to mind Britt Phillips' "Jem and the Holograms" era. However, when Hall pulled from her lower range, delivering whiskey-soaked snarls on a deliciously decadent downtempo rendition of Led Zeppelin's high-octane "Dazed and Confused," she expressed a vocal splicing effect that echoed Joan Jett and Stevie Nicks. At times, her veins enlarged, appearing to show strain and yet, the command backing each number seemed fueled by atomic power, never taking the wind out of the down to earth chanteuse.

Her funky delivery of "God" from Tori Amos' "Under The Pink" days felt like she was testifying at the altar. Her startling rendering of the Talking Heads' seminal "Psycho Killer" was slow, simmering, almost Gothic, like a '90s-era alt-rock revival band confused The Cure's Robert Smith for David Byrne.

The raw and animalistic heavy metal lite execution of Hozier's "Take Me To Church" was worthy of #blessed memes. But the night could be summed up with her exquisitely electric take on David Bowie's interpretation of Ron Davies' "It Ain't Easy." Honoring Bowie's Ziggy Stardust era, Hall created a Technicolor experience, her voice soaked with glitter and sensual grit.

Provided she doesn't stay away too long from Times Square, Hall could be the rock 'n roll princess Broadway needs. Annie Golden would be proud. Though, Mary Briget Davies should look out.

Lena Hall plays through April 18 at Cafe Carlyle, 35 E. 76th St. in New York. For information or tickets on upcoming shows, call 212-744-1600 or visit http://www.rosewoodhotels.com/en/the-carlyle-new-york/dining/cafe-carlyle