Jackie Hoffman

Mark Dundas Wood
54 Below  –  June 3, 17, July 8, 15, 22, 29 Momentously, Patti LuPone opened the 54 Below cabaret space this June. But she wasn't the first artist to play there. That honor went to singer/comedian Jackie Hoffman. Her show has continued at the new venue, and, in it, Hoffman doesn't let us forget for a...

Bitches of the Kingdom!

Roy Sander
Don't Tell Mama  –  Thursdays, June 14 – July 26 Not so long ago, composer/lyricist Dennis T. Giacino wondered whether the Disney fairytale princesses really did live happily ever after. This moment of contemplation led to his writing the forthcoming off-Broadway musical Disenchanted!, in which the princesses bitch about the way they have been portrayed in...

Rochelle Breyer Chamlin & Paul Chamlin

Roy Sander
"All at Sea: Songs on the Theme of Water" Don't Tell Mama: June 5, 13;  Metropolitan Room: August 7 Over the past few years, pianist/singer Paul Chamlin and his wife, singer Rochelle Breyer Chamlin, have presented several shows, all of them entertaining and all of them marked by a far-reaching and resourceful eye for material...

Jack Jones

Mark Dundas Wood
Feinstein's at Loews Regency  –  June 26 - 30 "I know your image of me is what I hope to be." When Jack Jones sang that line from Leon Russell's "A Song for You," early in his program at Feinstein's, I felt he was confessing something expressly to me. I have often found myself defending...

Ruth Carlin

Kevin Scott Hall
"SongMoments" The Duplex  –  June 28, 30, July 25 In her new show, "SongMoments," Ruth Carlin showed herself to be a quirky, likeable singer true to her art and her heart. With her unique, cinnamon-tinged, tremulous alto, Carlin conveyed both strength and vulnerability in a program that displayed intelligent song choices from an interesting variety...

Brian d’Arcy James

Roy Sander
"Under the Influence" 54 Below  –  June 26 - 30 Brian d'Arcy James comes to 54 Below with "Under the Influence," an evening of pop songs that influenced him when he was growing up in Michigan in the '80s. Though he has enjoyed considerable success and recognition for his work on- and off-Broadway and in television...

Maude Maggart

Mark Dundas Wood
"Into the Garden" Feinstein's at Loews Regency  –  June 5 - 16 The selections Maude Maggart sings in "Into the Garden" are not your father's pop songs. More likely they'd have been on your great-grandfather's play list. Maggart focuses mainly on music written a century or so ago. According to press notes, the show was...

Patti LuPone

Roy Sander
"Far Away Places" 54 Below  –  June 5 – 23 54 Below has certainly opened with a bang. Patti LuPone's two-week engagement was a complete sell-out, and now a third week has been added. When I attended, the audience greeted her entrance with abandoned applause, and then proceeded to reward her turns with so many extended...

Carly Sakolove

Roy Sander
"I Hear Voices" The Duplex  –  June 4, 8, 12; added performances June 21, 29 A YouTube video of Carly Sakolove singing Sondheim's "Send in the Clowns" as a dozen different "Broadway Divas" was picked by Time as one of the top ten web videos of 2010, and to date it has had over 115,000...

Mx. Justin Vivian Bon

Roy Sander
54 Below  –  Mondays, June 4 – July 9; Friday-Saturday July 20-21 Justin Vivian Bond comes on stage at 54 Below in an elegant long black dress slit up the left side to reveal a swell pair of gams. V's hair is long and blonde, and v's jewelry and elbow-length gloves are stylish. V starts to...