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.

CD Review: Melissa Errico’s “Out of the Dark—The Film Noir Project”

Gerry Geddes
During lockdown and quarantine, many people spent an inordinate amount of time bingeing TV shows and movies, searching through Netflix, Amazon's Prime, and other streaming services, for the perfect film or series or genre to fill their days and occupy their minds.  Singer Melissa Errico immersed herself in the shadowy, mysterious, dangerously romantic world of...

Randy Edelman: A Life in 80 Minutes

Gerry Geddes
The very first contribution I made to cabaret was persuading my friend, Marc Allen Trujillo, to include Randy Edelman’s “The Laughter and the Tears” in his act and helping him to phrase and to stage it. I first heard the song on Nancy Wilson’s album, I Know I Love Him (it was later recorded by...

Critical Thoughts: Words Matter—Diction, Phrasing, and Understanding Help Tell the Story

Gerry Geddes
When you are singing a song, you are telling a story. You may be narrating the story to the audience, you may be a participant in the story, or simply observing or perhaps reacting to the story, but in each case, the words matter.  The more connected to the song you are, the more personal...

CD Review: Karen Mason’s “Let the Music Play”

Gerry Geddes
I first reviewed Karen Mason back in the “golden days” of NYC cabaret, at the Duplex,  just after she moved from Chicago to NYC and then, a bit later, at the opening night of the cabaret room at Don’t Tell Mama.  She was an electrifying vocalist, a spellbinding and open-hearted storyteller, and a star. She...

Club Review: Dorian Woodruff’s “Studio Musician—The Music of Manilow”

Gerry Geddes
Dorian Woodruff (Photo: Frank Marando) As the first notes of Chopin’s “Prelude in C Minor” (which is the basis of Barry Manilow’s “Could It Be Magic”) slid easily into “It’s A Miracle” (Manilow, Marty Panzer), it was already apparent that singer Dorian Woodruff holds a special affection for and appreciation of...

Club Review: Mason Alexander Park’s “The Pansy Craze”

Gerry Geddes
Mason Alexander Park’s The Pansy Craze at Chelsea Table + Stage was part TED talk on non-binary history, part hard rock cabaret show, and part showcase for Park’s obvious talents. They played Hedwig in the first national tour of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and regionally in I Am My Own Wife, Cabaret, and The...

Club Review: Kim David Smith’s “Mostly Marlene”

Gerry Geddes
Kim David Smith (Photo: José Alejandro Espaillat) On the eve of Halloween 2021, I ventured into Club Cumming in the East Village. It was festooned with cobwebs and an errant skull here and there; hanging from the ceiling throughout the bar were multiple close-up photos of Janet Leigh’s head just as...

Club Review: Gilbert D. Sanchez’s “Me and My Good Judys at Good Judy”

Gerry Geddes
Gilbert D. Sanchez I recently visited The Blue Room, a new (or at least new to me) cabaret upstairs from Good Judy, a friendly and comfortable gay bar on Fifth Ave in Brooklyn.  The show room is a tiny, bare bones space with an upright piano on the stage, decent lights,...

Club Review: “If It Only Even Runs a Minute — Celebrates the Underappreciated Musicals of Hal Prince”

Gerry Geddes
Harold Prince If It Only Even Runs a Minute, which recently returned to Feinstein’s/ 54 Below, is the brainchild of Jennifer Ashley Tepper and Kevin Michael Murphy who serve as genial, enthusiastic, informative hosts for a show dedicated to samples from and stories about the flops of Broadway history.  It is...

CD Review: Kate McGarry and Keith Ganz Ensemble’s “What to Wear in the Dark”

Gerry Geddes
In their new CD, What to Wear in the Dark, the Kate McGarry and Keith Ganz Ensemble have fashioned a musically intriguing and emotionally satisfying response, not only to the pandemic but to the last decade or two of public and private wounds and monstrous elections. Kate McGarry has long been one of the brightest lights in...