Tommy Tune

Mark Dundas Wood
Is Broadway showman Tommy Tune too oversized a talent to be contained by a cabaret stage? The answer seems to be: literally yes, but figuratively no. As Tune told the audience at the opening performance of his Café Carlyle-debut show, "More Taps, Tunes and Tall Tales," his celebrated height put him in danger of sustaining a...

Shakina Nayfack

Tonya Pinkins
The legendary cabaret artist Marilyn Maye says of cabaret, "You don't have to be anything but who you are." Shakina Nayfack is the epitome of Maye's comment. In her evening at Sophie's at Broadway, she shares every inch of her six-and-a-half-foot, high-heeled, shaved head, tattooed, boy/girl, transgendered, feminist, Radical Faerie self with her audience. I...

New York’s Next Top Drag Queen Contest

Kevin Scott Hall
Perhaps taking his cue from the success of the club's summer MetroStar Talent Challenge, the Metropolitan Room's Joseph Macchia—one of the busiest cabaret producers on the scene—has come up with "New York's Next Top Drag Queen Contest," now in its second year. It runs every Monday night until the winner is crowned on May 5....

Roslyn Kind

David Munk
Roslyn Kind has returned to her hometown with the debut of her new club act, appropriately called "It's Been a While," at 54 Below. On opening night, an endearingly nervous Kind shared a set with her receptive audience that alternately reflected both her notable strengths and unique challenges as an artist. Looking sexy and trim in...

Jane Monheit

Tonya Pinkins
Jane Monheit is a voluptuous beauty in the tradition of Jane Russell and Jayne Mansfield. The other night at Birdland, she came on stage dressed like a Christmas present in red lace with a big red bow around her waist. Her red hennaed, shoulder-length hair sexily flipped to accent the beats in this upbeat evening...

Alexa Ray Joel

Robert Windeler
Make no mistake about it, from the moment she takes the stage, she takes the stage. Her voice is strong and her musicality is secure. Her crisp eleven-song, fifty-minute set goes beyond eclectic, and she somehow seems to know that her audience is ready to make the journey with her. At age 28, Alexa Ray...

A Few Shows and a Pet Peeve

Roy Sander
This is my first Bistro Bits column since June 11, 1999. I trust you'll forgive the slight interruption. In this return column, I discuss a few shows I've seen in the intervening years—more precisely, during the past few months. And I comment on a lamentable practice that has become almost as commonplace as it is...

Shana Farr

Mark Dundas Wood
Following a 2011 show that featured the music of Julie Andrews, Shana Farr returns with an ambitious program highlighting the music and lyrics of Noël Coward and Cole Porter. Thoughtfully assembled and heartfully rendered, the show is a sort of extended musical monologue that examines the contours of one woman's love life. It's a fine...

Jarrod Spector

Tonya Pinkins
At the top of Jarrod Spector's rockin' show "A Little Help from My Friends," he tells us that he is a music nerd and that he's spent a lot of time thinking about how one generation of tenor has led to the next generation. He then proceeds to deliver two hundred years of music effortlessly,...

John Minnock

Kevin Scott Hall
Boston's John Minnock has recently been heading down to New York about once a month to build a following in these parts. As evidenced by the nearly sold-out crowd that greeted him on the night I saw him, he's apparently succeeding at his goal. Slowly approaching the stage wearing a basic black jacket over a...