Bazazz! A Sequined Variety

Mark Dundas Wood
I'm glad to have lived through the 1960s and 1970s, when prime time TV variety shows—inspired by British music hall and American vaudeville entertainments—were most in vogue. And I'm sorry kids today miss out on such programs. (Fortunately, they can catch segments from many of the vintage ones on YouTube). The case can be made...

Robin Westle

Gerry Geddes
A "concept" in cabaret is a tricky thing. It can be an elaborate and complex narrative or character that permeates every moment of the show. It can be a tribute to another performer or to a songwriter. It can be a loosely structured through-line that might reach the audience only subliminally. Or a show can...

Lea DeLaria

Gerry Geddes
As far as I know, the stage at Birdland might still be steaming and too hot to touch after Lea DeLaria's incendiary David Bowie show there last week, which centered on her latest CD, House of David: delaria + bowie = jazz, The Orange Is the New Black star opened with "Boys Keep Swinging," a bold, dynamic...

Linda Glick

Gerry Geddes
In her early years as a singer in New York, Linda Glick split her time between teaching high school Spanish and French during the day and appearing at some of the city's landmark cabarets, such Les Mouches and Reno Sweeney, at night. As her nighttime career bloomed, it overcame her daytime pursuits as she moved...

Ann Kittredge

Robert Windeler
She was already two-thirds of the way into One Night Only, her recent show at Feinstein's/54 Below, before Ann Kittredge acknowledged that if she "had to pick one song" to explain what her evening was about, it would be this one: "Before the Parade Passes By" (Jerry Herman). Kittredge sang the number in a slower,...

Caitlin Fahey

Gerry Geddes
Party of One, which is playing at Don't Tell Mama, is the entertaining and smoothly structured cabaret debut offering of singer Caitlin Fahey. Coming from the world of opera, Fahey has a strong, expressive voice, but wisely chooses to keep it in check unless the song calls for her to indulge its power. She seems...

Amy Wolk

Mark Dundas Wood
The first music we hear in Amy Wolk's new Duplex show is a snippet of the "Love Is All Around" theme from The Mary Tyler Moore Show. The singer arrives on the stage, kicking out one leg so that we can get a good look at one of her bright new Wonder Woman shoes. Then...

Dawn Derow

Robert Windeler
In so many ways, 1941 was a very good year in America. It was the year Joe DiMaggio scored hits in a record 56 straight games, leading the Yankees to yet another World Series win. The movies gave us such classics as Citizen Kane and Rebecca, and it cost only 25 cents to see them....

The 28th New York Cabaret Convention

Bistro Awards
The 28th edition of the New York Cabaret Convention, presented by the Mabel Mercer Foundation, took place October 16-19 at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Penelope Thomas, Mark Dundas Wood, Gerry Geddes, and Robert Windeler covered the four nights for us. Following are their thoughts.     Gala Opening Night – by...

Frances Ruffelle

Penelope Thomas
Frances Ruffelle’s voice sounds like diamond dust: just so pretty and so gritty that you could listen to it sparkle roughly for hours. If Éponine had had the chance to grow up, this is who she’d be: streetwise, lovelorn, and European…singing to share the hard-won wisdom she attained through heartbreak and owning that wild edge....