Gerry Geddes

Gerry Geddes, critic for BistroAwards.com, is an award-winning director, writer, teacher, performer, lyricist, and a contributor to the podcast Troubadours and Raconteurs. He conceived and directed the acclaimed musical revues Monday in the Dark with George (Bistro and MAC Award winner), Put on Your Saturday Suit—Words & Music by Jimmy Webb, and Gerry Geddes & Company (in its five-year residency at Pangea). He has directed singers André De Shields, Darius de Haas, Helen Baldassare, and Lisa Viggiano. He has been active in the cabaret world for over five decades and has produced numerous CDs; his lyrics have been performed and recorded here and in Europe. Gerry’s workshop, The Art of Vocal Performance, is regularly offered to singers of all levels. His memoir of life in NYC, Didn’t I Ever Tell You This?, was recently published and is available at barnesandnoble.com. He is currently at work on his first novel.

Club Review: Erik Leuthäuser’s “In the Land of Ronny Whyte”

Gerry Geddes
Erik Leuthäuser Berlin-based jazz singer/composer Erik Leuthäuser made his American debut recently at Pangea as he celebrated the forthcoming release of a new tribute album to New York music legend Ronny Whyte, with Whyte himself as a special guest.  Multi-tattooed Leuthäuser has a goth, gender-fluid look and wardrobe that make his...

Club Review: Zachary Clause’s “On a Beach”

Gerry Geddes
Zachary Clause In the new show, On a Beach, written and performed by Zachary Clause, the singer/actor presented a kaleidoscopic journey through beaches, Hollywood, gay life, the Great American Songbook, mortality, history, survival, therapy, air travel, age, and his own past and present. He established a beachhead of sorts on the...

CD Review: Beverley Church Hogan’s “Sweet Invitation”

Gerry Geddes
In an era where Marilyn Maye, Petula Clark, Sheila Jordan, and Shirley Bassey are still going strong with no sign of slowing down, it should come as no surprise that 86-year-old singer Beverley Church Hogan would release a CD as masterful, savvy and irresistibly entertaining as her new recording, Sweet Invitation. Church Hogan’s voice, like...

Club Review: Lauren White with The Quinn Johnson Trio

Gerry Geddes
The casual elegance of the cabaret room at Pangea on an early June night was the perfect setting for Lauren White’s celebration of the COVID-delayed release of her CD, Ever Since the World Ended, as part of Ben Cassara’s Spring Swing Jazz Series. It was a delightful showcase for her laid-back, conversational yet swinging vocals...

CD Review: “Gary Brumburgh’s “Full Circle”

Gerry Geddes
Gary Brumburgh was content to be a teacher until he happened to be cast in an amateur production of a Broadway musical; he was immediately smitten and left his former career to spend the next two decades studying acting and singing and appearing in myriad local productions, touring companies, and any musical he could find....

Club Review: Amanda McBroom’s “Crimes of the Heart,” with Michele Brourman

Gerry Geddes
"The Portrait" is one of Amanda McBroom’s most beautiful and beloved creations. I was reminded of it during her delightful new show, Crimes of the Heart, at Birdland, not because she sang it, but because I was amazed that she looked the same as when I had seen her decades ago at the old Ballroom...

Club Review: “David Dean Bottrell Makes Love: A One-Man Show”

Gerry Geddes
David Dean Bottrell is an actor, a writer, and a fixture on the storytelling circuit in New York City and Los Angeles. He is perhaps best known for his unforgettably scene-stealing, creepy guest star turn on Boston Legal as Lincoln Meyer. His  show at The Triad, David Dean Bottrell Makes Love: A One-Man Show, is...

Club Review: Therese Lee’s “Riding the Bus to the Red Carpet”

Gerry Geddes
Singer/actress Therese Lee had her first taste of those "fifteen minutes of fame" interviewing stars whose fame has lasted longer than Warhol predicted. Her story of getting there, and what happened when she did, form the basis for her highly entertaining new show, Riding the Bus to the Red Carpet, smartly and sensitively directed by...

Club Review: “Andrea McArdle & Friends Celebrate the 45th ANNIEversary”

Gerry Geddes
Andrea McArdle made a glamorous entrance on to the stage at Feinstein’s/54 Below to a vamp from “Annie” (Charles Strouse, Thomas Meehan) wearing a voluptuously feathery black coat that put the “frill” in frilly. She doffed the coat within seconds, but she had achieved the effect she was after. Beneath the coat was a ravishingly...

Jimmy Webb on His Love of Cabaret, Its Traditions, Its Venues, Its Intimacy: A Conversation with the Bistro Awards’ 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award Honoree

Gerry Geddes
It was a special treat to be able to interview one of my two favorite songwriters (the other being a certain Mr. Sondheim) in advance of his receiving the 2022 ASCAP–Bob Harrington Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition to helping me get to know the man, the interview evolved into a kind of retrospective on the...