Robert Windeler

Robert Windeler is the author of 18 books, including biographies of Mary Pickford, Julie Andrews, Shirley Temple, and Burt Lancaster. As a West Coast correspondent for The New York Times and Time magazine, he covered movies, television and music, and he was an arts and entertainment critic for National Public Radio. He has contributed to a variety of other publications, including TV Guide, Architectural Digest, The Sondheim Review, and People, for which he wrote 35 cover stories. He is a graduate of Duke University in English literature and holds a masters in journalism from Columbia, where he studied critical writing with Judith Crist. He has been a theatre critic for Back Stage since 1999, writes reviews for BistroAwards.com, and is a member of The Players and the American Theatre Critics Association.

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Articles by this Author:

Cacophony Daniels

I have never before seen a tribute show quite like Wanna Bette?, drag artist Cacophony Daniels's homage to Bette Midler, currently at Don't Tell Mama. The evening celebrates Midler and...

Andrea Axelrod

It would take a daring performer with solid and wide-ranging singing chops and a sense of humor to pull off an effective and memorable tribute to six major musical artists...

Natalie Douglas

Ella Fitzgerald was arguably the premier female jazz and pop singer of the mid-20th century, certainly when it came to recordings and perhaps in live performance as well. Natalie Douglas...

Sierra Rein

The title of Sierra Rein's show at the Laurie Beechman Theatre is a deliberately ironic misnomer: Running in Place (directed by James Beaman) actually celebrates—in fine style—her arrival at a...

Liz Robertson

There is a great deal to be said for inside information when it comes to creating and presenting a musical cabaret tribute show. Almost any singer could compile such an...

Cynthia Sayer

Ever since I first heard Stephen Foster's "Oh! Susanna" on a Little Golden Record in early childhood, I've loved the sound of the banjo. I cottoned to Mickie Finn's club...

Brooke Davis

In Late to the Party, her recent show at the Laurie Beechman Theatre, directed by Barbara Grecki, Brooke Davis touchingly and comically re-invented the autobiographical cabaret hour by appropriating mostly...

Matthew Morrison

Sometimes a large following based on solid television and Broadway musical credits can be enough to assure a successful cabaret stint. No need to name your club show or to...

Gretchen Reinhagen

When a cabaret show begins with the song "Life Sucks and Then You Die" (Ray Jessel) you might be forgiven for thinking you're in for yet another "poor me" sob...

Audrey Appleby

In Ladies Cheap Cocktails, her show at Pangea, Audrey Appleby offers an appealingly personal portrait of love and romance in a program of original music and lyrics, mostly written by...