Austin Pendleton and Barbara Bleier

Mark Dundas Wood
Austin Pendleton and Barbara Bleier have a sweet rapport with one another in their show "Late Nights in Smoky Bars" (at Pangea; directed by Barbara Maier Gustern). The two portray longtime friends who meet regularly over potent potables to sort out their lives and offer each other support. (At least that's how it seems at...

Matthew Holloway

Gerry Geddes
It's always great to be surprised in cabaret. Sometimes it's one song, one story, one character that can shake you out of your club-going assumptions and expectations and genuinely enthrall you. More rare is an entire show that surprises you. That's just what we have in Matthew Holloway's remarkable "Mother Always Said!", which just returned...

Lynda Rodolitz

Robert Windeler
Truth in advertising is always welcome, when it comes to cabaret shows as much as anywhere else. For her recent show at Don't Tell Mama, "Lynda Rodolitz Is Off Her Rocker," the subject certainly nailed her self-description. Oh, she may not be certifiably insane, but she played a crazy lady very well, consistently (and delightfully)...

Ira Lee Collings

Robert Windeler
When both the singer and his accompanist took the stage wearing red rubber clown noses, the audience could have been forgiven for thinking the pair of them were up to some sort of satire of a cabaret act, about to play the whole set for laughs. But no such thing was afoot. For his recent...

Andrea Axelrod

Mark Dundas Wood
Love—you impossible thing! Elusive? Obviously. But sometimes you can also be slippery even to define. Your borders are often blurry and difficult to trace. Andrea Axelrod explores this particular conundrum in her new show at the Metropolitan Room: "Almost Like Being in Love (songs on the cusp of love)." She covers a variety of scenarios...

Martin C. Hurt

Gerry Geddes
With his new show, "You Inspire Me," singer/actor Martin C. Hurt wanted to pay tribute to songwriters Fran Landesman and Tommy Wolf. He had heard "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most" and fallen in love with their best-known song, as did many of us upon our first exposure to it. Musical legend has...

Kurt Phelan

Gerry Geddes
In his native Australia, Kurt Phelan is a theatre star; among his credits are the original Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Dirty Dancing, Singin' in the Rain, and various and sundry Disney princes through the years. With his good looks and strong voice, it is easy to believe that. He has also done cabaret "down...

Lena Hall

Gerry Geddes
Before I get into my review of Tony-winner/rocker Lena Hall's new show, "Oh! You Pretty Things," at the Café Carlyle, I think I need to present a few personal bona fides. I saw the first New York performance of Janis Joplin (with Big Brother and the Holding Company) at Fillmore East and attended many Bruce...

Claudine Cassan-Jellison

Mark Dundas Wood
Learning about your family history can be fascinating. But how often will strangers share your enthusiasm for stories about the lives of your parents and grandparents? Not especially often, I would guess. Claudine Cassan-Jellison beat the odds with "Just Visiting," her new show at Don't Tell Mama. The evening was built around the saga of...

Marissa Mulder

Mark Dundas Wood
"Marilyn in Fragments"—Marissa Mulder's new show, directed by Sondra Lee and performed at the Laurie Beechman Theatre—doesn't follow the format of an ordinary cabaret "tribute" show. In her portrayal of Marilyn Monroe, Mulder doesn't break character until the very end of the show, and there is seldom a pause taken to allow for audience applause...