Mama’s Boys

Gerry Geddes
Anyone fortunate enough to have seen Tommy J. Dose, Brian Kalinowski, Paul Pilcz, or Jon Satrom perform in the piano bar at Don't Tell Mama, or at Brandy's or some other open mic room, knew before Mama's Boys started that there would be lots of good singing—and there was. What there wasn't, was lots of cabaret....

Jordan Wolfe & Michelle Dowdy

David Sabella
Jordan Wolfe and Michelle Dowdy are two very enthusiastic and charismatic performers who have a lot to offer, both vocally and energetically. And in '67: The Summer of Love Show, the two performers took every advantage to offer as much of this enthusiasm, and vocal volume, as possible. Playing to a sold-out crowd of exuberant...

Gabrielle Stravelli

Penelope Thomas
The Birdland release concert for Gabrielle Stravelli's fourth album, Pick Up My Pieces: Gabrielle Stravelli Sings Willie Nelson, was packed. 6:00 PM is basically a matinee in the jazz world, and not a time you would expect to see buzzing crowds spilling out onto midtown sidewalks. The show more than delivered. Stravelli truly landed on the...

Reeve Carney

Gerry Geddes
Reeve Carney has enjoyed a number of successes both on television (in the series Penny Dreadful and in Fox's remake of The Rocky Horror Picture Show) and on Broadway (with Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark and, currently, Hadestown). It is clear from his new show at The Green Room 42 that the first among his...

Eva Noblezada

Gerry Geddes
In her new show, Ballad of a Broadway Twenty-Something, Eva Noblezada gives us a glimpse into the wild ride she's been on since being cast (in her teens and still in high school) in Cameron Mackintosh's epic remounting of Miss Saigon in London. She went on to receive a Tony nomination for the role on...

Ali Levin: Melania’s Day Off

Mark Dundas Wood
"Have you ever been to hell?" asks Melania Trump (Ali Levin) early in Melania's Day Off, an ongoing show at The Duplex. "Because I live there." The premise of the show is that the third Mrs. Trump needs a break from the rigors of being First Lady and decides that the Duplex would be the...

Steve Grand

Mark Dundas Wood
Steve Grand—a singer and model from the Chicago area—writes and performs pop songs, some with a country edge, about being young and gay. He's attracted a following, in part because of the music videos that illustrate his recordings. He is especially known for his song "All-American Boy," which is about falling in love with a...

Christine Aziz

Robert Windeler
It's always encouraging to see a performer, too young to have personally experienced the subject of her tribute show, go to great lengths to impart to her audience a real-life sense of the honoree. The flip side of that cross-generational combination is, of course, that the distance between live artist and deceased subject can be...

Nancy McGraw

Robert Windeler
They were both born in Georgia. And as members of the Southern diaspora and living most of their lives elsewhere, Down Home was so often in their thoughts. He was Johnny Mercer, one of the preeminent lyricists of the mid-20th century American songbook. She is Nancy McCall McGraw, who recently chose Mercer as the subject...

The Drinkwater Brothers

Penelope Thomas
John and Matthew Drinkwater are twins—singing, football-playing twins, in their senior years at Wagner College. As I sat down to watch their recent show at Don't Tell Mama, I must admit I had a little trepidation that—with their being young, playing to a home crowd, and probably not thus-far knocked around by show business—I'd be...