Songwriters, performers, and devoted spouses Anya Turner and Robert Grusecki have been making music together for three decades—something they celebrated recently in the last of a three-performance run of a show called Joy & Love. In it, they presented original songs from several of their recorded albums, but—especially—their two most recent ones: Secret Lovers (2024) and Mid-Century Modern (2023).
The show happened at a club I’d never before set foot in: Sid Gold’s Request Room in Chelsea. It proved to be a cozy, unpretentious venue with fine acoustics. But, also, sightline problems: If you go there for a show, arrive early and avoid the tucked-away back-booth seating.
Robert Grusecki and Anya Turner (Photo: Carol Rosegg)
I was more familiar with Turner and Grusecki than I was with the Request Room. But I wasn’t prepared for the embarrassment of musical riches I was to find there. The husband-wife team turned the venue into a veritable horn of plenty, spilling over with songs in various musical styles, with intelligent lyrics and brightly burning vocals. Patter was spare and unobtrusive.
Turner took the lead on most songs. And that’s no wonder. Her voice is strong, but it somehow also comes off as nice and easy (which, as we all know, does it every time). It has a warm timbre that can turn cool as needed, and a nimbleness that can best be described with the word “grace.” If you’ve ever visited Oregon’s two-tiered Multnomah Falls and seen the bands of silvery water cascade elegantly into a pool from 600-plus feet above, well, that’s what her singing reminded me of on this occasion.
Grusecki’s vocals are also effective, complementing Turner’s with gentle, fragrant harmonies. He takes a more prominent singing role on certain songs. And he mans the piano with quiet authority and taste. At this show, bassist Tod Hedrick contributed his subtle but considerable talents to the mix.
The opening musical selections made for a sweet start. The duo began with the title song from the Mid-Century Modern album—an optimistic up-tempo romp perfect for Boomers who’ve seen a thing or two (“Life’s lookin’ up. / We’re gettin’ down.”) Soon following was a ruckus of a song called “Dude Gotta Go,” the one title on the set list not extracted from a Turner/Grusecki album. It didn’t take many clues for listeners to identify which troublesome “dude” Turner and Grusecki were singing about. Guest guitarist John Putnam lent a bit of pop-rock cred on this song.
Selections from the show’s “Portraits of Secret Lovers” segment were among the most appealing. This suite of songs featured tributes to various artists and writers (predominantly women) who struggled with their creative identities and their personal demons: among them solitary and unconventional poet Emily Dickinson and transgender pianist and saxophonist Billy Tipton. An audience favorite from this grouping was the delicious “Clam House Blues,” celebrating Gladys Bentley, a bodacious, queer Harlem singer of the 1920s. I found the shockingly jaunty “Tell Leonard” to be even more intriguing. It focuses on novelist/essayist Virginia Woolf on the occasion of her suicide. In the song, she leaves a breezy message for her husband: “Tell Leonard, that brainy brute / Love you madly but I got to scoot.” Disturbing. But somehow right. The lyric paraphrases Woolf’s actual suicide note.
The Dickinson song (with a melody reminiscent of “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Misérables), the song about Tipton, and another one about actor/singer/teacher Helen Gallagher were somewhat less remarkable but still very listenable.
The show’s concluding stretch featured more-conventional fare, including the show’s title number (with an “and” instead of an ampersand), “Joy and Love,” which heartfully encouraged the spirit of human creativity in the face of mortality. A sing-along bit on this number would not have been my choice, but no worries. The appreciative audience got into the spirit of it with no struggle at all.
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Presented at Sid Gold’s Request Room, 165 W. 26th St., NYC, Sept. 16, Oct. 14, and Nov. 11, 2025.
Mark Dundas Wood is an arts/entertainment journalist and dramaturg. He began writing reviews for BistroAwards.com in 2011. More recently he has contributed "Cabaret Setlist" articles about cabaret repertoire. Other reviews and articles have appeared in theaterscene.net and clydefitchreport.com, as well as in American Theatre and Back Stage. As a dramaturg, he has worked with New Professional Theatre and the New York Musical Theatre Festival. He is currently literary manager for Broad Horizons Theatre Company.
