Cheryl Bentyne

Gerry Geddes
Singer Cheryl Bentyne, of Manhattan Transfer fame, publicized reARRANGEMENTS OF SHADOWS, her recent show at Birdland, as a celebration of her new release of Sondheim songs, but it turned out to be more a preview of the CD because fully half of the program consisted of non-Sondheim material. Although this might have been disappointing to...

Brooke Davis

Robert Windeler
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 familiar songs in a partly new context. She even had a somewhat non-traditional backing trio: music director, arranger and pianist Darren R. Cohen; Peter Sachon...

Emily Ellet

Mark Dundas Wood
Last summer I attended the final round of the MetroStar Talent Challenge at the Metropolitan Room, where I immediately found myself rooting for young singer Emily Ellet. She was someone I'd never previously heard—or heard of—but I was taken with the clarity of her voice, her concentration, her respect for (and ease with) lyrics, and...

Lorna Dallas

Gerry Geddes
To the best of my knowledge, February 26th is not a holiday, but perhaps it should be. That date marked the return to the New York cabaret stage, after a 20-year absence, of singer Lorna Dallas in a beautifully fashioned, exquisitely performed show called Home Again. With the invaluable assistance of director Barry Kleinbort and...

Ruth Carlin

Gerry Geddes
Early in a recent encore performance of her show Kaleidoscope Eyes at Don't Tell Mama, singer Ruth Carlin professed her love for words, for poetry, and for lyrics. It was not a necessary profession because it was evident in her very first song, a version of Lionel Bart's "Who Will Buy?" that was filled with...

Robbie Torres

Mark Dundas Wood
The Emcee in the musical Cabaret, first seen on Broadway in 1966, is an enigmatic figure. Existing entirely in the world of the Kit Kat Klub cabaret in Berlin, he barely qualifies as a "character" in the show at all. One might better call him a "presence." In the 2001 book Open a New Window,...

John Lloyd Young

Penelope Thomas
Entering wearing sunglasses—commanding in the way you can be only when you're about to sing a James Bond theme song—John Lloyd Young began his set at the Café Carlyle on opening night with 1967's "You Only Live Twice" (John Barry, Leslie Bricusse). Violinist Gokce Erem was featured right away with the catchy string theme, establishing...

RELATIONSH!T

Gerry Geddes
The theme of a revue can be a two-edged sword. When the song and humor work, it can be delightful, but without some thought of variation of story and/or a through line that brings us to some moral or message or climax, there can be too much repetition. While there were funny, and occasionally touching,...

Orfeh and Andy Karl

Mark Dundas Wood
The husband-and-wife team of Orfeh and Andy Karl have teamed up for Legally Bound (directed by Charles Randolph-Wright), in an engagement at Feinstein's/54 Below. Married now for 17 years, the two have made names for themselves in musical theatre and have occasionally appeared together in New York productions, most notably in Broadway's Legally Blonde (2007)....

Zachary Clause

Gerry Geddes
Ambition should always be applauded, even when the show that results from that ambition is a mixed success. Such is the case with the task performer Zachary Clause sets himself with Zachary Clause Does Bette Midler at the Continental Baths, 1971, currently in a return engagement at Pangea. He attempts to recreate every word, every...