Sally Mayes in “Now and Then: Jazz/Standard Time”

Gerry Geddes
At the top of her exciting new show, Now and Then: Jazz/ Standard Time, singer Sally Mayes barreled on to the stage like the proverbial blond bombshell, grabbed the room, and didn’t let go for the next hour, much to the delight of her cheering audience. Accompanied by Tedd Firth on piano and Tom Hubbard on...

Daisy Jopling’s “Who’s Who”

Gerry Geddes
The violin is no stranger to the cabaret stage. But most often it is a featured member of the band or a special guest appearance. In Daisy Jopling’s delightful show, Who’s Who, it is front and center and, in fact, more prominent than the vocals. As the title indicates, the focus of the show is...

Bistro Bits: January Discoveries Get the New Cabaret Year Going

Mark Dundas Wood
At the start of a new calendar year, are we—subliminally, maybe—more open to new ideas and fresh ways of doing things? I saw several cabaret shows this January. What links the three shows I'm writing about today is that each one involves a discovery of something fresh, innovative, and full of promise. Maybe I wouldn’t...

Carolyn Montgomery in “girlSINGER—A Celebration of Rosemary Clooney”

Gerry Geddes
If someone wants to experience a textbook example of the way to do a tribute show in a cabaret, they need look no further than Carolyn Montgomery’s girlSINGER: A Celebration of Rosemary Clooney, which debuted recently at Birdland, New York’s venerable, historic jazz club.  With an immensely talented quintet of musicians, savvy direction by Sally...

Bistro Bits: Happy New Year…Possibly

Mark Dundas Wood
I'f you're like me, you may have had mixed feelings in the past few weeks about the imminent arrival of 2024. With controversial wars raging and a shocking appetite for autocracy growing around the globe, plus a divisive, ultra-important election season ahead here at home, I find it a bit hard to concentrate on other...

Bistro Bits: Artist Tributes Highlight the 15th Annual Winter Rhythms Season

Mark Dundas Wood
Next to the NY Cabaret Convention each October, December’s annual Winter Rhythms festival at Urban Stages, is arguably the most important yearly collection of cabaret performances in the city. I got myself to more WR shows this go-round than I usually do. But I didn’t come close to seeing the whole lineup (which ran December...

Camille Diamond: “Over the Moon….on Pluto Transit”

Gerry Geddes
During the last six years of health crises and political and economic crises, people turned to a variety of sources for solutions to problems and answers to questions. Religion, medicine, government, and community, all had meager responses, so I suppose it is inevitable that some choose to ascribe the dire state of affairs to the...

“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...