Kym Johnson used her first cabaret set at 54 Below to test a different kind of stage. On October 9 and 10, she traded the ballroom frame for a live-room format built around songs, dialogue and movement.
At 54 Below, the debut gave Johnson a new lane beyond Dancing With the Stars. It also put Billy Stritch, Michael O’Brien and Rob Garcia in the same show, with the room filled by longtime followers of Johnson, DWTS regulars, Joey Fatone and Marilyn Maye.
54 Below and the new format
Johnson’s set opened with “Get Happy,” then moved through “Dance: Ten; Looks: Three” from A Chorus Line and “I Won’t Dance,” where she broke from the expected cabaret script and showed off dance moves mid-song. That shift matters because cabaret depends on the performer carrying the room without the control of a fixed choreography stack; here, she still leaned on dance, but used it as a live cue rather than a full routine.
She also performed “What I Did for Love” from A Chorus Line, “Somewhere That’s Green” from Little Shop of Horrors and “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’,” the last of which drew on Nancy Sinatra-style frug moves. The set was less about simply singing standards than about threading her dance identity through material that could hold both voice and motion.
Joey Fatone and Marilyn Maye
Billy Stritch’s role as musical director and pianist, with Michael O’Brien on bass and Rob Garcia on drums, gave the debut a tight live backbone. Johnson also danced with Trent Whiddon on “Sway,” while Stritch sang “Whatever Lola Wants” as Johnson and Whiddon moved across the number. Carson Kressley then joined her for “Pour Me a Man,” which widened the night beyond a solo showcase.
Johnson, who married Robert Herjavec in 2016, acknowledged the physical strain after one routine: “I don’t know why I did that. I still think I’m 20.” That line lands as more than a joke; it shows why the show worked. She said she would not dance, then did exactly that, and the surprise was built into the structure of the evening rather than left to nostalgia.
Johnson at 54 Below
The second night drew Theater Pizzazz, but the larger takeaway is simpler: Johnson turned a first cabaret appearance into a hybrid of vocals, story and movement without treating any one piece as decoration. For readers who know her from DWTS, the useful detail is that the cabaret form let her keep the physicality while giving her a looser frame for it, which is a cleaner fit than a straight recital.
What prompted Johnson to choose cabaret as her next live-performance format is still the open question, but the two-night run makes the answer feel practical rather than abstract. She did not just appear at 54 Below; she used the room to show how far her stage vocabulary can stretch when the choreography is no longer the whole point.
