With his new offering, Stop the Train, recently at the Laurie Beechman Theatre, Eric Michael Gillett returned to the cabaret stage as a phoenix rising. Beginning the show in an unusual way, he meandered about the audience introducing himself to newcomers and cajoling with friends. After a while, he made his way to the stage […]
Watching Michele Brourman play to a packed house in a recent one-nighter at Birdland Theater, I felt that I gained a deeper understanding of the work of singer-pianists in cabaret and how their art differs from that of vocalists who don’t accompany themselves. Some of what struck me is rather obvious. Singer-pianists seem to have […]
If there’s such a thing as a carefully crafted stream-of-consciousness approach to cabaret, Elizabeth Parrish is surely the queen of it. In her recent show at Pangea, Every Soul’s a Cabaret (directed by Paola Styron), “Betsy,” as she was introduced, made a most convincing case for her own life as a cabaret and a largely […]
While it is a delicious thing to hear a real Berliner singing from the Weimar Cabaret tradition, Katharine Mehrling seems to have a soul that is equally inspired by the streets of Paris. Her trio of muses for Streets of Berlin, her recent offering at Joe’s Pub, were Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, and Édith Piaf. […]
Bob Simonello performed a lively Rock/Blues/Jazz fusion show, Rollin’ a 7, to a packed house at Don’t Tell Mama recently, aided by music director Jeff Harris on piano, Scott Thornton, bass, and Steve Singer, drums. Simonello, possesses many qualities with which to entertain his audience, not the least of which is his personable and genuine […]
Julie Reyburn has been relatively inactive in the cabaret scene in recent years, but that doesn’t mean that she has been otherwise idle. She’s been busy raising children and working in the nonprofit sector. She now returns to her art with a new show at Don’t Tell Mama called Anywhere We Are. It’s a big, […]
At Don’t Tell Mama, Nicci Nicholas is currently offering a saloon show of sorts, directed by Lennie Watts and with music director Ian Herman at the piano. A saloon show, or saloon set, as it is often referred to, is a set of seemingly unconnected songs, each in its own right a classic of the […]
On September 16, 1986, Susan Trosell, as she was called then, performed her first cabaret show at Don’t Tell Mama, having passed a nerve-wracking audition for Sidney Myer. Exactly 33 years later, with the same Sidney Myer in attendance, Sue Matsuki, as she had long since become, celebrated her pearl-plus-three-year anniversary with a thoughtful and […]
After a decade away from cabaret performing, Goldie Dver returns to the stage in an energetic and polished show called Back in Mama’s Arms (directed by James Beaman). The “Mama” in question is, of course, the venue at which the show takes place: Don’t Tell Mama. At one point in the set, Dver points out […]
Imagine for a moment that the Andrews Sisters had been cryogenically frozen in a tube right next to Walt Disney and then thawed out in 2019 and handed sheet music to hit songs by the likes of Kesha, Mariah Carey, Aerosmith, and Prince. This will give you a small glimpse of the wonder that is […]
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