Club Review: Linda Kahn’s “Say Yes!”

Betsyann Faiella
Linda Kahn performed a wonderful repertoire of songs that successfully delivered on the title of her show, Say Yes!, at the Laurie Beechman Theatre. She made hay out of the curves life throws at us and was totally charming throughout. She opened the show with a medley of “Don’t Rain on My Parade” and “I...

Club Review: Dorian Woodruff’s “The Lyrics of Alan and Marilyn Bergman”

Gerry Geddes
In 1960, lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman secured their position in the Great American Songbook with Frank Sinatra’s recording of “Nice ‘n’ Easy” (Lew Spence) and, up until Marilyn’s death this year, they provided a lyrical backdrop to the passing decades with songs in film, theatre, television, and recordings while working with some of the...

Club Review: “Lisa Viggiano Sings the Jane Olivor Songbook”

Gerry Geddes
After she was discovered (and signed to Columbia Records) at her very first cabaret show, Jane Olivor released five albums between 1976 and 1982 that endeared her to many, particularly in the gay community.  As their superstar Barbra Streisand ascended to the stratosphere, Olivor took her place in many of their hearts.  As the AIDS...

Theatre Review: Melissa Etheridge in “My Window—A Journey Through Life”

Penelope Thomas
Melissa Etheridge (Photo: Elizabeth Miranda) When a Rockstar wants to do a theatre piece you hope it’s going to be good; that they make the leap to a new genre and take it seriously. Melissa Etheridge’s show, My Window: A Journey Through Life currently running at New World Stages, delivers. It is intelligently conceived,...

Club Review: Philip Officer’s “Let Me Sing and I’m Happy”

Gerry Geddes
When I teach vocal performance, one of the first things I stress to students is that performing in a cabaret space is more akin to film acting than stage acting. Subtle gestures, like a raised eyebrow or a simple smile, can be much more effective than the grand gestures and histrionics of a theatrical performance. ...

Club Review: Scott F. Mason’s “One Dame Funny Night”

Gerry Geddes
Before I get to Scott F. Mason’s hilarious show at Don’t Tell Mama, One Dame Funny Night, return with me to those thrilling days of cabaret past, and to one of the best cabaret comedians in the late 20th century, Pudgy (the stage name of Beverly Wines).  Pudgy began her career at a time when...

Club Review: Ann Morrison’s “Merrily from Center Stage”

Gerry Geddes
Anyone who has seen the 2016 documentary Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened might understandably assume that there was no need to get further insight into the famed failure that was Merrily We Roll Along. Anyone who has seen an autobiographical cabaret show by a Broadway performer might understandably assume that a show by one...

“Bennett & Barton: Swing Out Under the Moon!”

Gerry Geddes
If the Bistro Awards gave out an award for Outstanding Musical Archeologist, Elena Bennett would win hands down for her triumphant return to the New York cabaret stage with Fred Barton in Bennett & Barton: Swing Out Under the Moon! which recently debuted at Pangea.  In an evening filled with classics (in quality if not...

Book Review: In “Shy,” the Late Mary Rodgers Settles Some Musical Scores

Mark Dundas Wood
Showing up in bookstores and online this week is the posthumously published Shy: The Alarmingly Outspoken Memoirs of Mary Rodgers (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022), written in tandem with the still-very-much-alive Jesse Green, chief theatre critic for The New York Times. Although we’re already well into August, there’s still time for those who like a...

Club Review: Helane Blumfield and Bobby Peaco in “Me and Bobby P”

Gerry Geddes
Bobby Peaco was one of the stalwarts of New York piano bars and cabaret for decades.  His talent, wit and antic spirit livened up many of the city’s classic venues until a few years ago when he decided to move to Florida with his husband.  He made a rare and welcome return to the cabaret...