Gerry Geddes has conceived and directed a number of musical revues—including the Bistro- and MAC Award-winning "Monday in the Dark with George" and "Put On Your Saturday Suit-Words & Music by Jimmy Webb"—and directed many cabaret artists, including André De Shields, Helen Baldassare, Darius de Haas, and drag artist Julia Van Cartier. He directs "The David Drumgold Variety Show," currently in residence at Manhattan Movement & Arts Center, and has produced a number of recordings, including two Bistro-winning CDs. He’s taught vocal performance at The New School, NYU, and London’s Goldsmith’s College and continues to conduct private workshops and master classes. As a writer and critic, he has covered New York’s performing arts scene for over 40 years in both local and national publications; his lyrics have been sung by several cabaret and recording artists. Gerry is an artist in residence at Pangea, and a regular contributor to the podcast “Troubadours & Raconteurs.” He just completed a memoir of his life in NYC called “Didn’t I Ever Tell You This?”
When I teach vocal performance, one of the first things I stress to students is that performing in a cabaret space is more akin to film acting than stage acting. Subtle gestures, like a raised eyebrow or a simple smile, can be much more effective than the grand gestures and histrionics of a theatrical performance. […]
Sondheim tribute recordings and CDs have become a cottage industry in the music world. There have been many fine entries in the genre harkening back to Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, Dame Cleo Laine, Jackie & Roy, Herbie Hancock, and Betty Buckley to name a few, not to mention the myriad concert and studio tributes by […]
Before I get to Scott F. Mason’s hilarious show at Don’t Tell Mama, One Dame Funny Night, return with me to those thrilling days of cabaret past, and to one of the best cabaret comedians in the late 20th century, Pudgy (the stage name of Beverly Wines). Pudgy began her career at a time when […]
Late Bloomin’ Jazz Man is the title of singer-lyricist Mark Winkler’s great new album as well as the title of his recent appearance at Pangea (as part of Ben Cassara’s Cool, Fall Jazz series) which celebrated both the recording and his welcome (and rare) return to New York City from his West Coast home. Accompanied […]
In Higher Love! A Pop Fantasia on Queer Themes, Ryan Frostig (a likeable, energetic, promising singer) saddled himself with a show that was as overwrought and overthought as its title. It was more of a theatre piece than a cabaret show, with big, amorphous ideas that, unfortunately, never achieved any real substance. All the coming-of-age/growing-up […]
If Dom DeLuise had decided to pursue a career in cabaret rather than in motion pictures, he could have done far worse than fashioning his performance after Steven Zumbo who recently presented a new show at Pangea. His was a perfect example of old school cabaret—a singer, a piano, and a stool, with a well-chosen […]
The dog days of summer are extending into September in New York City cabaret this year. Still recovering from the pandemic, isolation, distancing, masks and (now) monkey pox, it is not the most prolific season for performance and night life in the city. The Duplex is out of commission and other bastions of New York […]
Anyone who has seen the 2016 documentary Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened might understandably assume that there was no need to get further insight into the famed failure that was Merrily We Roll Along. Anyone who has seen an autobiographical cabaret show by a Broadway performer might understandably assume that a show by one […]
If the Bistro Awards gave out an award for Outstanding Musical Archeologist, Elena Bennett would win hands down for her triumphant return to the New York cabaret stage with Fred Barton in Bennett & Barton: Swing Out Under the Moon! which recently debuted at Pangea. In an evening filled with classics (in quality if not […]
Bobby Peaco was one of the stalwarts of New York piano bars and cabaret for decades. His talent, wit and antic spirit livened up many of the city’s classic venues until a few years ago when he decided to move to Florida with his husband. He made a rare and welcome return to the cabaret […]
