J. Michael Reeds and Marc McBarron Kessler

Gerry Geddes
Songwriter-pianist Marc McBarron Kessler could not hope to find a better interpreter of his song cycle, Ghost of Vaudeville, than actor-singer J. Michael Reeds, whose bravura performance on stage at Don't Tell Mama held my interest and attention even when the songs, themselves, faltered in that regard. Kessler is a talented composer and lyricist, but this...

Tom Goss

Gerry Geddes
Tom Goss is an out gay singer-songwriter, or more to the point, a singer-songwriter who happens to be an out gay man. He has built a following and a career primarily through an ongoing series of videos—by turns funny, provocative, heartwarming, dramatic—of his engaging songs. But he takes his sexual orientation as a given, so...

Tamra Paselk

Penelope Thomas
Awkward, Tamra Paselk's recent show at Don't Tell Mama (directed by Casey Burden), answered a few questions: are those high-rise pants that are coming back into style a good idea? YES. Should all performers hand out frozen treats at their cabaret? A thousand times YES. The bigger issues, however, were left somewhat unresolved. Since death...

Livingston Taylor

Gerry Geddes
The Rubin Museum of Art on W. 17th Street is a restful, almost zen-like space that inspires calm and contemplative silence. The museum's ongoing series, Naked Soul, takes place in a small, attractive performance space with cherry wood walls and a lone piano center stage. The mission of the series is to present completely acoustic events—no...

Ian & Elliot Finkel

Penelope Thomas
With Ian on xylophone and Elliot on piano, the Finkel brothers owned the stage at the Metropolitan Room on September 9 as if variety-show acts were still going strong and winning us over—not only with shtick, but also with quality and integrity. The Finkels are the sons of Emmy and Obie award-winning actor Fyvush Finkel (1922-2016),...

Dietrich Rides Again

Robert Windeler
I can't help it. I had planned on falling in love with Marlene all over again when I went to see Dietrich Rides Again. But, alas, it didn't happen. I had seen the legendary star almost fifty years before, on what we all believed was to be her farewell tour. (She was to do several...

Norbert Leo Butz

Mark Dundas Wood
As a leading man in musicals, two-time Tony Award recipient Norbert Leo Butz has been very much a creature of his own era. He has appeared in six Broadway musicals since 1997, as well as in Off-Broadway's very successful The Last Five Years (2002). None of these shows was a revival, and all of them...

Ruby Manger Live! The Farewell Engagement

Mark Dundas Wood
The vanity, self-indulgence and capacity for delusion among show-business divas—male and female alike—have been satirized regularly over the decades. So there is nothing especially boundary-breaking about Julia Mattison's Ruby Manger Live! The Farewell Engagement, currently at Feinstein's/54 Below—yet the talents of Mattison (both as writer and performer) make the show something special. Particularly welcome is...

Heather Mac Rae

Gerry Geddes
Early on in her new show, Use Your Imagination, recently at the Beach Cafe, Heather Mac Rae revealed, with no hesitation, that she is 70 years old. In fact, she seemed downright gleeful about it—and why not? It has been nearly 50 years since she first set foot on a Broadway stage in Here's Where I...

Inner City Reunion Concert

Gerry Geddes
Directed by Tom O'Horgan, Inner City opened in late 1971 and ran just under 100 performances. The passionate following it and its cast album have attracted since then makes it the quintessential cult musical. There are a few possible reasons for its initial failure. It was the fourth O'Horgan show running concurrently on Broadway; the...