Lennie Watts

Mark Dundas Wood
It's been suggested that one of the more important things an actor can do to maintain a professional career is to have a sense of his or her "type." If that sounds limiting and horribly commercial-minded, so it may be. But if you're serious about actually working as an actor, then accepting with grace the...

Jason Danieley

Robert Windeler
In his recent autobiographical show, "Romantic Notions," at Feinstein's/54 Below, Jason Danieley's song choices and performance styles covered several decades and ranged from sweetly touching to wildly energetic. This solid and eclectic singer was abetted in this ambitious enterprise by a superb trio led by music director and pianist Tedd Firth, and including bassist Pete Donovan...

Meg Flather

Gerry Geddes
I last saw Meg Flather at Don't Tell Mama in the mid-'80s and I remember being highly entertained by her voice and her show. Seeing her again at that venerable performance space in 2015 in her new show, "Carly & Me," I am happy to report that her wit, her charm and her singing are as...

Carol Lipnik

Mark Dundas Wood
When I was describing singer Carol Lipnik to a friend, he asked me whether she sang any "standards." It took me a moment, but I recalled one number from her current show at Pangea that sort of qualified: her rendition of Hank Ballard's "The Twist." Lipnik describes the song as a "mad-opera alien-clown invasion." Her cover...

Matthew Connor

Gerry Geddes
Seeing Matthew Connor at Rockwood Music Hall (the terrific multiplex of music rooms in the East Village) I was reminded of the first time I saw Tom Waits at the much-missed Bottom Line. Waits adopted a complete persona for the stage. Someone coming in unaware would have thought that a derelict had wandered into the...

Nicholas Guest

Gerry Geddes
Nicholas Guest is the son of a British diplomat and brother to Christopher Guest (of Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show fame) and to New York Times writer Anthony Haden-Guest. He has appeared in numerous films, dating back to Trading Places and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. His voice has appeared in even...

Heather Villaescusa

Mark Dundas Wood
After a decade's absence, Heather Villaescusa returns to the New York cabaret scene with "What I Did for Love" at Don't Tell Mama. The show—no big surprise—focuses on matters of the heart. (Isn't a cabaret performance that doesn't deal with love-related themes something of a rare bird—perhaps even a dodo or passenger pigeon?) Villaescusa wisely...

Jay Brannan

Gerry Geddes
Jay Brannan walked out on stage at Joe's Pub in his recent performance as if he were entering his living room to greet some friends who had stopped by to hang out. In t-shirt and jeans, with red sneakers, carrying a guitar and smiling a sly, shy smile, he sat on the lone stool, center...

Eddie Sarfaty

Mark Dundas Wood
Eddie Sarfaty is an emphatically Jewish, comic, one whose cultural identity stays front and center throughout his set. His show "Playing in Traffic" (at the Metropolitan Room) features jokes about having been a depressed kid, about harboring envy of Gentiles (whose holidays were so much more festive and fun than the ones he celebrated), and,...

Molly Pope

Roy Sander
A few years ago, Molly Pope cast off the hard-edged bitch-diva persona that had made her the darling of camp followers, and allowed us to see the person underneath. The form she chose then was a scripted, theatrically stylized presentation of her experiences breaking into show business; it was both a welcome development and a...