Barrett Wilbert Weed at Feinstein's/54 Below

Unlike some of her overachieving predecessors, Barrett Wilbert Weed did not recite a script, play audience-participation games, or pass around home-baked goods for her Feinstein's/54 Below solo debut on Wednesday evening. She simply stood center stage, sang a few numbers that her shower has probably heard many times before, and when the last page was turned in her songbook, it was time to go home.

It may not be the most polished performance seen by the late-night venue (which recently underwent a name change from simply "54 Below"), but in all its casual, and occasionally awkward, simplicity, Weed's show is certainly one of the most charming.

As a relatively unknown commodity amid the New York theater scene, Weed wears a how did I get here? attitude on her sleeve — similar to the one she donned as a starstruck 2014 Drama Desk nominee (she was nominated for her role in Heathers: The Musical alongside Broadway mainstays Sutton Foster, Idina Menzel, Jessie Mueller, and Kelli O'Hara). She marvels at the presence of unfamiliar faces in the crowd, and chats with friends in the audience as if reaching out for a life preserver, convinced her costume as the evening's headliner is 10 sizes too big. Yet, when she finally makes her way into a song after delivering one of her many rambling introductions, the apologies are replaced with powerhouse vocals and confident, character-driven delivery that fill out every crevice of her well-deserved spotlight.

No Heathers tunes make their way into the lineup, but she does close the show with a song from her latest off-Broadway musical, Found, titled "Barf Bag Breakup" — a poignant tune composed by Eli Bolin. Aside from that single step into her New York career, the evening's throughline might be described as "songs that Barrett feels like singing." Some of the bill's highlights are a rock-infused rendition of Joni Mitchell's "Free Man in Paris"; a serene delivery of "Fields of Gold" (for her mother who she claims has an abnormal obsession with Sting); Sheryl Crow's "If It Makes You Happy" (featuring the high-belting chops she boasted in Heathers); and a roof-shaking "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman," sung with an infectious soul that subverts the mediocre expectations set by her self-deprecating prologues. Her performance-less performance is delightfully free of all self-importance — but at the risk of breeding another show diva, Barrett Wilbert Weed may be the only actress in New York with room for a little more ego.