Club Review: Salty Brine’s Living Record Collection—”How Strange It Is”
Gerry Geddes
The album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel, was released on February 10, 1998. The group was the brainchild of singer/songwriter Jeff Magnum, whose lyrics were in some instances inspired by the writings of Anne Frank. The amalgam of indie rock and art folk has given rise to much acclaim, both...
Club Review: Kati Neiheisel’s “Yesterday… Once More”
Betsyann Faiella
Kati Neiheisel’s absolutely charming show, Yesterday...Once More, is a love letter to the Carpenters, the brother and sister duo from Southern California (born in Connecticut) who were known for Karen Carpenter’s unfailing, soothing contralto and a brand of pop—arranged, often written, and masterminded by brother Richard—that produced multiple Top 10 hits in the 1970s. [caption...
Club Review: “To Steve with Love: Liz Callaway Celebrates Sondheim”
Charles Nelson
Ever feel like you’re Sondheimed-out? Perhaps, but if it’s Liz Callaway singing the late great master’s songs, as she did recently at Feinstein’s/54 Below in her newest show, To Steve with Love: Liz Callaway Celebrates Sondheim, I guarantee you that she'll leave you wanting for more. You may already be aware of the personal, professional,...
Club Review: Karen Mack & Elliot Roth
Gerry Geddes
The front lounge at Pangea has become a relaxed, friendly hybrid of cabaret and piano bar with no cover and no minimum. The talented duo of Karen Mack and Elliot Roth fits the room and the feel to a proverbial “T.” They are both seasoned pros but here, liberated from the restrictions and familiarity of...
Club Review: Meg Flather’s “Rodgers & Hammerstein 2021+”
Penelope Thomas
If you ever get stuck in thinking that the Rodgers & Hammerstein songbook can be dated and dusty, you haven’t yet heard Meg Flather sing from it. With multiple albums as a singer-songwriter, her legit sound is sweet, easy, and perfectly blended—and personal. That’s a tricky thing to do, to sing standards as if you...
Theatre Revue: “Notes from Now—Songs of Resilience & Renewal”
Gerry Geddes
The new revue, recently presented at 59E59 Theaters, Notes from Now—Songs of Resilience & Renewal is, like most revues, a hit-and-miss affair, but when it hits, it is very, very good. It features mostly newly commissioned original songs by contemporary musical theatre writers. The show opens with Adam Gwon’s “Don’t Swat the Bee,” which...
Club Review: Meri Ziev in “New Words”
Betsyann Faiella
Meri Ziev’s show on a blustery and cold Saturday afternoon was a bit of sweetness and warmth that was badly needed on that day. New Words is a very ambitious show, a little uneven in terms of focus and material, but nonetheless, very enjoyable. It’s impossible not to appreciate a beautiful, elegant woman with unfailing pipes....
Club Review: Susanne Mack’s “Fragments”
Penelope Thomas
Almost all of the cabarets I’ve seen in the last year have seen performers grappling to make sense of the pandemic lifestyle: the grief of missing their collaborators and audiences, and the gratitude and growing pains of returning to the stage again. Susanne Mack’s Fragments at Pangea tracked the process of putting the pieces back...
Club Review: Klea Blackhurst’s “One of the Girls—The Words and Music of Jerry Herman”
Charles Nelson
Klea Blackhurst is one of those rare songbirds who can build a show out of intelligent patter and amusing anecdotes. Her act, which she brought to Birdland Feb. 21, is called One of the Girls, subtitled The Words and Music of Jerry Herman. She comes by that title honestly: Herman himself designated her one of...
Club Review: Celia Berk’s “On My Way to You—Improbable Stories That Inspired an Unlikely Path”
Penelope Thomas
Celia Berk drew a large and enthusiastic crowd to the Laurie Beechman Theatre for “On My Way to You: Improbable Stories That Inspired an Unlikely Path.” Berk brought a room-filling sincerity and warmth that was wisely punctuated with humor. “Anything I Can Do” (Irving Berlin from Annie Get Your Gun) featured lyrics changed to “Anything...
