Lonette McKee

Elizabeth Ahlfors
"Can't Help Lovin'" Oak Room at the Algonquin  –  April 5 - 30 In 1986, Lonette McKee portrayed the great Billie Holiday in off-Broadway's Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill. This was a solo realization of Lady Day in the 1950s shortly before she died, her voice ragged and rough but still thrillingly expressive,...

Catherine Russell

Mark Dundas Wood
Allen Room, Jazz at Lincoln Center – March 30 & 31 Catherine Russell's well-publicized Allen Room appearance generated a real sense of occasion—the feeling that here was a singing artist in full musical bloom. The show featured many cuts from the singer's recently released CD, Strictly Romancin'. But the set was also a tribute to...

Nathan Gunn

Elizabeth Ahlfors
"An Evening with Nathan Gunn" Café Carlyle  -  March 29 - April 16 With a commanding baritone voice, GQ features, and an offhand sense of humor, Nathan Gunn is definite matinee idol material for any stage. He comes from a background of "WOO" ("World of Opera") and has appeared in opera houses, including the Metropolitan...

Dean Regan

Mark Dundas Wood
"Give My Regards to Broadway" Metropolitan Room  –  March 26, 27 The persona that Dean Regan employed in his Metropolitan Room show was that of a stage-struck teenage kid—one who has somehow assumed the body of a mature man but who remains enchanted by The Miracle That Is Broadway. When actor-singer Regan looks at Times...

Sigali Hamberger

Roy Sander
"A Toast to Ava Gardner"  Metropolitan Room  –  March 19, 25,  April 5, 6 In her new show, Sigali Hamberger takes us on a journey through Ava Gardner's personal life and professional career—her background, desires, ambitions, marriages, love affairs, film roles, and leading men—en route, singing songs that illuminate significant events and relationships. How fitting...

Shirley Jones

Roy Sander
"An Evening of Story and Song" Feinstein's at Loews Regency -  March 15 - 19 A sizable segment of the general public probably knows Shirley Jones primarily as the mother on the hit TV series The Partridge Family, but the rest of us may be more familiar with her film work (over thirty movies, among...

Kim Smith

Roy Sander
"Misfit" Laurie Beechman Theatre  -  March 2, 9, 16 I'd bet that Kim Smith could sing the dictionary and turn it into a dramatic musical theatre piece, keeping the audience spellbound from aardvark straight through to zymurgy. To every song he brings a commitment and focus that are intense and hypnotic. His delivery, in a...

Kat Gang

Elizabeth Ahlfors
Rose Room at the Plaza  -  Wednesdays, from 9:00PM It's Beauty and the Beat at the Plaza Hotel's Rose Room. The Kat Gang Quartet has settled in with its jazz magic every Wednesday evening in the space that once housed the legendary Persian Room. That glamorous nightclub hosted some of the world's top performers, including...

Maude Maggart

Roy Sander
"Everybody's Doin' It" Oak Room at the Algonquin  -  February 15 – March 12 As the King of Siam is famously alleged to have said, "Is a puzzlement." The last two shows Maude Maggart did at the Algonquin were very good, indeed. Now we have this new show. How could things have gone so wrong?...

Amy Beth Williams

Roy Sander
"Once in Love with Amy" Metropolitan Room  -  February 2, 24, March 2, 23 Amy Beth Williams made a very strong impression competing in the 2010 MetroStar Talent Challenge, where she was one of the two runners-up. Her bearing was regal (an adjective I don't think I've had occasion to use since I last saw...