Music | Arts & Culture | Shubert Theatre
Courtesy of Thee Phantom and The Illharmonic.
“New Haven, y’all ready!?”
The words echoed from the stage as musicians filed into their seats, instruments steady in their hands and leaning against their legs. Around them, the stage was backlit in a rich, cobalt blue, with a turntable for a DJ on a podium. In the quickly-filling house, the audience buzzed with anticipation. It felt reminiscent of the days of RUN DMC, and for a moment, a person could forget that they were in a historic Broadway theater in New Haven, and not the Apollo in New York.
A subtle tune played. Heads tilted. Chins rested on the bases of violins; elbows guided bows as they skated across strings. Trombones and trumpets burst onto the scene; a tuba entered the fray from somewhere in the second row. The combination prepared listeners for an evening tattooed to memory, in that way only hip-hop can offer.
That sound came to the Shubert Theatre Saturday night, as Thee Phantom & The Illharmonic Orchestra arrived in New Haven for a one night only performance to a sold out house. The exquisite and mellifluous brainchild of husband-wife duo Thee Phantom and The Phoenix (a.k.a. Jeffrey McNeill and Andrea Coln), the group performs and mixes hip hop and R&B numbers with a full orchestra, tapping into centuries of artistic tradition in a way that feels fresh and deeply present.
“This is a celebration,” Thee Phantom said. And just like that, it was.
Outside, the streets were dense with attendees coming down from the Yale-Harvard football game, foodies, and bar hoppers still early in their evenings. On College Street, cars connected like a locomotive train, bumper to bumper until they nearly formed a single vehicle. Inside, attendees made their way through the doors in hip leather jackets, fur coats, funky brim hats, and snazzy suits, each garment as sharp as the next.
Styles commanded attention like a tight beat inspired by a jazz LP. Hip hop, after all, is as much about fashion as it beats—and acrobatic and sexy dance moves that the group brought in full force as soon as it was on stage.
It wasn’t just the words; it was the feeling. When hip hop meets orchestra—especially an orchestra that’s been trained in these arrangements—a new world is born. As Phantom and Phoenix took the stage, the audience leaned in, and got a montage of classic hip hop hits in return. During each number, a screen bathed in blue, purple, gold, orange, green, white, red, yellow, orange, and pink set the tone.
It was a world where you chose to stay for as long as you could (or at least, that was true for this reporter), and soak in the sound. As soon as the 1991 piece “The Choice Is Yours” by Black Sheep dropped, words left lips like immediately, greeting the air with memory. Where there are hip-hop fans, there are people who can keep up with the lyrics.
Where's the Black Sheep? / Here's the Black Sheep! rang out over the space, and the piece felt like family.
Even if we wanted to the flock could not be weak
Watch me swing like this, why should I swing it like that—
As the boom-bap-cello-plucked beats pulsated through the room, a musical tour of this country took place. There was Eminem and Dr. Dre’s “Forgot About Dre,” which marries a sharp, tinny-voiced son of the Rust Belt with the West Coast excellence of Compton, California. There was Wu-Tang Clan’s 1994 “C.R.E.A.M.,” very much a product of the East Coast. Throughout, traveling felt like a free ride, on which a listener could embark without ever having to leave their seat.
It was also a tour through decades of music history, with a deep love and reverence for the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s. At one point, Thee Phantom waxed poetic on Rakim—who the group joined last year in a collab in Washington, D.C.—and Phoenix blew the whistle accordingly. In the audience, necks moved like heads on Pez dispensers. Shoulders shook. Heads bopped. It was familiar, contagious even. Early fans of hip hop repressed the urge to breakdance and newer ones bopped along in their seats.
“I closed my eyes so that I can catch the piano,” said attendee Teresa Flowers. “The strings. The horns pull it all together. Percussion draws me with dance.”
Flowers soaked in the melodies like rain during this storm of horns, strings, and verses. Meanwhile, the performance called to mind color-saturated, sometimes-bombastic and synth-soaked music videos at the genre’s pique of popularity.
There was, of course, plenty of room for classics too, and the musicians did not miss. At one point, Eurythmic’s 1983 “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of These)” made its way into the groove as vocalist Jessica Lyric crooned “everybody is looking for something,” the words soulful and sultry. Lyric smiled often, as if to assure the audience that she and performers were having as much fun onstage as ticket holders were in their seats. And she was: it was more than a show. It was an experience.
Meanwhile, McNeill and Coln proved fluent in verbal martial arts, rocking matching black t-shirts printed with a red violin and mic. As the two sparred affectionately, words danced in the air at maximum speed and clarity. Pauses were on time. Cadence was real. Each instrument played to perfection.
“On My Mama. On My Hood. I Look Good,” they performed from Victoria Monét’s 2023 “On My Mama.” Who could disagree?
“This is my first time hearing of them,” said New Havener Leie Hamilton. “They were so amazing. It was really great to see a Black Symphony. I’ve attended several shows at The Shubert. It’s a New Haven gem.”
“Hip Hop is embedded in me,” Hamilton added. “I grew up in the 1980s. It was kind of a third parent. I was impressed with all of the people that came out. All the variations. Music bridges ages and races. There was someone that represented everyone in here.”
That was true even as the two reached the end of the show, and Thee Phantom urged the crowd to turn on its lights. “They can’t block our light,” he called out, and the audience listened to every word.
It is one thing to be entertained. To inspire others in uncertain times is a mission that only true artists can achieve. If Beethoven were alive (which he very much was as Thee Phantom mixed the Beastie Boys’ “Paul Revere” with his Fifth Symphony) I am sure he’d agree. Illharmonic composes music you can feel.
When asked how she felt performing at the Shubert, The Phoenix said that the city hadn't disappointed. “The crowd was electric,” she said.
.