Jesse Malin Triumphs Over Tragedy With ‘Silver Manhattan’

Beloved singer/songwriter Jesse Malin on Wednesday (Feb. 18) kicked off the second incarnation of Silver Manhattan, the Broadway-inspired show about his life and career that delves into the freak spinal stroke that left him paralyzed from the waist down in 2023.

The show traces how a music-loving kid from Queens navigated the New York hardcore scene of the 1980s and went from a failed audition at CBGB to playing Madison Square Garden. Just as the featured songs run the gamut, from teenage punk to horn-driven soul, so do the stories, which veer from the sweetness of young love to Malin in his darkest hours, grappling with his paralysis and undergoing stem cell treatments in Argentina.

After debuting Silver Manhattan via a string of performances at New York’s Gramercy Theatre, the show has relocated downtown to the Malin-co-owned Bowery Palace (formerly Bowery Electric) in the East Village for a six-week, five-nights-a-week run through March 29. Guests such as Lenny Kaye, Butch Walker and John Gallagher Jr. are scheduled to appear at future performances, following a guest spot by Low Cut Connie’s Adam Weiner during opening night.

Although Malin doesn’t shy away from the crushing, everyday realities of his condition, he has recaptured some of his mobility to the point that he rises to his feet, and, using a walker, moves through the audience to end the show.

Already onstage before he arrives, Malin’s Silver Manhattan band also pull double-duty with moments of scripted dialog. A highlight was Bree Sharp, who fully embodies a ball-busting CBGB gatekeeper one minute before giving life to the sweet inspiration of Malin’s “Black Haired Girl” the next.

In addition to Sharp and Malin’s longtime guitarist Derek Cruz (who also provides music direction with Justin Craig), the Silver Manhattan band features keyboardist Rob Clores, bassist James Cruz, drummer Paul Garisto and horns by Staish Indofunk and Danny Rey. Malin and Lauren Ludwig wrote Silver Manhattan, which is directed by Ellie Heyman and produced by Thomas O. Kriegsmann and David Bason.