“Amy Beth Williams Sings Leiber & Stoller”

Gerry Geddes
As with most singers enduring and then coming out of the pandemic with its quarantines and lockdowns, Amy Beth Williams spent a lot of time exploring, discovering, and re-discovering songs and songwriters and putting together future shows. That exploration led her to Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller—not only to their iconic hits, but to their rare...

Roberto Araujo: “I Just Wanted You To Know”

Gerry Geddes
When Roberto Araujo came out to his family he was thrown out of the house and fled Mexico City to pursue his dreams in New York City. After a rough and sometimes homeless start while still a teenager, he eventually began working in theatre and, over time, added media, writing, and photography to his resume. With I...

Melissa Errico: “Broadway Baby—From Manhasset to Manhattan & Beyond”

Gerry Geddes
Melissa Errico won a 2023 Bistro Award for her recording, Out of The Dark: The Film Noir Project, a wonderfully chosen and beautifully sung collection of songs from, or reflective of, film noir movies from the '40s and '50s.  For her latest show which premiered at 54 Below, Broadway Baby—From Manhasset to Manhattan & Beyond, she presented...

Suede

Gerry Geddes
People are always bemoaning and longing for the “good old days” of New York cabaret. I find so much to enjoy and experience in the current scene that I rarely join in that nostalgia, but it took about 30 seconds listening to cabaret/ jazz singer Suede’s return to Birdland to realize that one of the...

Bistro Bits: This New Memoir Is Not a Drag; A Roundup of Cabaret Confessions

Mark Dundas Wood
Charles Busch spills it. A cabaret venue can sometimes seem pretty chameleonic. Monday, you'll find a singer performing a Burton Lane tribute. Tuesday you’ll get a comedic sketch show with no music at all. Wednesday’s headliner may turn out to be an entertainer whose work is indescribable but probably best tagged with a “performance art”...

Jai Rodriguez: “A Thousand Sweet Kisses”

Gerry Geddes
The OG “culture guy” of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, actor/singer Jai Rodriguez, made a spectacular return to the cabaret stage after an absence of 18 years with A Thousand Sweet Kisses at 54 Below. He had a career in theatre before the iconic realty TV show with acclaimed appearances in Rent and other...

Mamie Parris: “Surrender—An Andrew Lloyd Webber Thrill Ride”

Gerry Geddes
First: a word of warning to anyone who knows me. Sit down and take a deep breath.  You are about to hear me praise a show that celebrates the music of Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber.  The cause for this “aberration”?— Surrender—An Andrew Lloyd Webber Thrill Ride, which debuted recently at The Green Room 42. To...

Gilbert Sanchez: “Cats II—The Other Cats Musical”

Gerry Geddes
Cats II—The Other Cats Musical was a hellzapoppin’, high-flying, low-aiming variety show that easily held its own against its more prestigious predecessor. While Andrew Lloyd Webber limited his inspiration to T.S. Eliot, this show’s creator, host and featured performer, Gilbert Sanchez, in the guise of his starry stage persona, Ms. Zilbert, took limitless inspiration from...

Mark G. Meadows

Gerry Geddes
Sometimes the gods of luck just smile down on you. I was at Chelsea Table + Stage a few weeks ago to review George Krissa; I had received a press release for the late show that same night - a jazz singer/songwriter/pianist presenting an evening of originals, Stevie Wonder songs and other material. I decided to stay...

Michael Conley in “The Fabulist Fox Sister”

Gerry Geddes
Kate Fox, the woman who invented séances in New York in 1892, is a fascinating subject for a musical for many reasons, not the least of which is the grift and theatrical duplicity that surrounded her “supernatural” performances and the “religious” devotion of her followers, which ring a bell very directly correlated to the MAGA...