Luba Mason

Tonya Pinkins
Luba Mason slinked onto the stage of the Metropolitan room in a cream floor-length gown accented with blue brocade flowers riding the curves of her lithe frame. Her hips swayed, her shoulders kept the beat, her voice soared from smoky bassoon to blaring soprano sax in a rendition of Van Morrison's "Moondance" that was for...

Patrick DeGennaro

Kevin Scott Hall
A versatile veteran of New York’s cabaret scene, Patrick DeGennaro has become known not only for the many hats he wears (singer in many styles, musical director, songwriter, and vocal coach), but also for the way he has transformed his look over the years. Now a tattooed (he admitted an addiction), muscular, mustached rocker in...

Jason Morris

Mark Dundas Wood
Jason Morris certainly has talent. He is blessed with a malleable singing voice with a pleasing timbre. He seems at home with the conventions of contemporary pop singing. He favors melisma, but keeps it in check. For his show "Musically Yogic" at the Metropolitan Room, Morris has surrounded himself with some top-of-the-line collaborators, including director...

Tom Andersen

Mark Dundas Wood
The closing performance of Tom Andersen's recent Don't Tell Mama show (his first solo program in almost a decade) had a casual pre-Labor Day vibe. He wore cool summer attire, befitting a box social. And he'd tucked plenty of fresh, thoughtfully prepared musical treats in his picnic hamper. He opened the show with "Gosh, It's...

Liam Forde

Roy Sander
The title of Liam Forde's offering at Stage 72—"A Fleet Phantasmagoria!"—is a bit much and a little precious, isn't it? Well, the show, itself, is a lot much and very precious—with both adjectives now used in their most plauditory sense: much signifying the prodigious amount of artistic creativity on display; precious in that the musical numbers...

Jake Mendes

Mark Dundas Wood
Although his recent Don't Tell Mama show, "Lady Songs," had more than a few rough edges, Jake Mendes is, I think, on the right path to finding out who he is as a solo performer and what his place might be in New York's cabaret community. Or, if he isn't on that path quite yet,...

KT Sullivan & Jeff Harnar

Tonya Pinkins
Stephen Sondheim is so special, so specific, so idiosyncratic. Sung by everyone, everywhere, how could anyone possibly do anything new and unique? In "Our Time – Sullivan & Harnar Sing Sondheim" at the Laurie Beechman Theatre, Jeff Harnar and KT Sullivan, along with musical director Jon Weber and director Sondra Lee, have done just that: they...

Sharon McNight: Red Hot Mama – The Sophie Tucker Farewell Tour

Robert Windeler
Those relative few of us who remember Sophie Tucker at all can recall only a stout, corseted old lady in the black-and-white days of the Ed Sullivan TV variety show, waving a white scarf and claiming to be "The Last of the Red Hot Mamas." We knew there must be more to the story, of...

Amy Beth Williams

Roy Sander
Amy Beth Williams's latest show is an exciting hour of risk-taking, a bravura display of artistic derring-do. She has us, in turn, fascinated, laughing delightedly, astonished, and moved to tears. In addition to being an exceptional singer and actress, she has become Amy Beth Williams the compleat entertainer and Amy Beth Williams the daredevil. The...

Lauren Stanford

Roy Sander
When Lauren Stanford competed in last year's MetroStar Talent Challenge, she seemed to flower as the weeks progressed: the range and depth of her skills became more and more evident, and she grew increasingly impressive. Though she appeared almost plain at the outset, she bloomed and we could see that she was actually quite lovely....