WESTERLY — Crooner Nicolas King, the Westerly native whose career has taken him from Canal Street to Broadway and all around the globe, said he's honored to come back home to be the star performer at this year's George Moore Cabaret Series at the United. "I'm very excited to lend my voice to the show," King said on the telephone one afternoon last week — just hours before he was set to perform at Provincetown's Post Office Café and Cabaret with fellow entertainer Billy Stritch. After all, he said, the United is a beautiful place to perform and the series is swell.
Plus, added the Westerly High School graduate whose father, Erik King, was the original owner of Perks and Corks, "it's kind of cool" to come back to the street with so many memories. "I was always bopping around on Canal Street," said King, the grandson of well-known vocal coach and performer Angela Bacari. "I grew up on Canal Street.
I was always there." His aunt, Lisa Ferrara, owned a salon — Lisa's Style Connections— across the street from the United, he recalled, and if he wasn't there — or at his "Aunt Debbie's nail salon" next door to the salon, he was "running to see my dad at Perks" or his grandmother, who taped her cable show in a building on Canal Street now owned by the United. Actually, said King with a laugh, one of his very first live performances took place on the sidewalk in front of the salon, across the street from the United — where the Brazen Hen is today.
"I was belting out tunes on Canal Street with a little cup for coins," he said with a laugh. "The only problem was that I got the concept backwards and was handing out coins to the people." "Debbie finally said to me, 'No, honey, let the people give you the money,'" King added.
From his sidewalk singing, King zoomed on to early stardom. He appeared in three Broadway productions before he was 12. Aside from appearing opposite Tom Selleck in “A Thousand Clowns," and Carol Burnett's "Hollywood Arms" directed by Hal Prince, he was Broadway’s longest running Chip in Disney’s “Beauty and The Beast.
” He's appeared in dozens of TV commercials — including his award-winning "Oscar Mayer Lunchables" commercial, and on TV he's had appearances on "The View," "The Today Show," "Sally Jesse Raphael," “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," and twice on "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno, including Leno's final week as host in 2014. King has worked, performed and collaborated alongside artists such as Neil Simon, Tony Danza, Andrea McArdle, Jack Jones, Lainie Kazan, Norm Lewis, Faith Prince, Billy Paul, Jennifer Holliday, Debby Boone and Linda Lavin among many others.
He performed alongside his mentor, the legendary Liza Minnelli, starring when he was 11 years old as her opening act from 2002-2012, touring all over the country. King has performed concerts from Las Vegas to London, and on many iconic stages including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Birdland, Ronnie Scott’s, 54 Below, Joe’s Pub, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, and aboard Silversea and Crystal Cruises. He he has performed in clubs and concert halls, including Birdland and Lincoln Center in NYC, and at jazz festivals from coast to coast.
He headlined Summer Pops in 2022 for the Chorus of Westerly and brought his show, “Hindsight’s 2020” to Theatre By The Sea. But now King will be back in Westerly, where he can exhale a bit, visit his favorite haunts, pick up some soupy from Westerly Packing, catch up with family and friends, and get ready for the United gig. "I'm going to soak in every bit of Westerly," said King who's even invited a special guest to join him.
Billy Stritch, who enjoyed a 25-year collaboration as accompanist and opening act for Liza Minelli and toured with the legendary Tony Bennett as Tony’s pianist and musical director, will join King on stage for the cabaret show. "And maybe I can get my grandmother and aunt to come up on stage too," said King who said he's preparing to "just have a ball" at the concert created to honor the memory of the late George Moore Sr. "An absolute ball," King said.
"I'm very excited." George C. Moore Jr.
of Westerly, one of George Sr.'s two sons, is also pretty excited about this year's cabaret with King and Stritch. The annual event was created to celebrate the American Songbook and the golden age of Broadway along with honoring his father's memory.
The late George Moore Sr. was born and raised in Westerly, and later moved to New York City. A gifted piano player, singer and musicologist, he especially enjoyed early Broadway musical comedies and brought countless years of joy to others by playing and singing for his friends and family.
"We are all very, very excited to welcome Nicolas this year," George Jr. said on the telephone one day last week. "It's going to be a great show.
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