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: “Kim David Smith — Live at Joe’s Pub”

Gerry Geddes
Kim David Smith at the 2019 Sydney Cabaret Festival. (Photo: John McRae) Kim David Smith’s first live CD, Live At Joe’s Pub, contains a memorably entertaining overview of a lot of material that he has been presenting at various hip downtown clubs and cabarets over the last few years, including some...

CD Review: Lisa Viggiano’s “Invited to Stay”

Gerry Geddes
The wonderfully warm, wise, and appealing vocalist Lisa Viggiano intends her newest CD, Invited to Stay, to give us all a break from quarantines, CoVid-19, face masks, presidents, and, for the most part, she succeeds delightfully. Invited to Stay: 2020/Produced by Chip Fabrizi and Lisa Viggiano. Presenting an intriguing patchwork of songs from...

Susan Werner

Gerry Geddes
For the last few decades, Susan Werner has been delighting audiences as a singer, a songwriter, and an instrumentalist. She's continued her string of delightful, witty, warm, and wise songs with her "NOLA project," which, as one might surmise, spawned songs inspired by and in tribute to the historic music center New Orleans. Her recent...

Wendy Scherl

Gerry Geddes
Wendy Scherl is such an immediately inviting and obviously talented singer, that one wanted to surrender completely to the charms of her new show, Town and Country, which recently had an encore performance at the Laurie Beechman Theatre. There were a number of wonderfully winning moments throughout the show, starting with her opener, a nicely...

Amy Jo Jackson

Gerry Geddes
Amy Jo Jackson's show The Brass Menagerie brings Tennessee Williams to the cabaret stage at the Duplex with astonishing results. While the playwright may not at first glance seem ideal fodder for such a venue, the show pulses with such intelligence, wit, passion, comedy, heart, and musical acumen that any reservations dissolve in seconds. Jackson's...

The Randy Andys

Gerry Geddes
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...

Jen Fellman

Gerry Geddes
Jen Fellman has an extraordinary voice, with vaulting highs and creamy lows; if her recent show at Feinstein's/54 Below were judged solely on the gorgeous sounds that caressed our ears, it would have been an absolute smash. However, there is a lot more to a successful club act—even to a CD release show, as this...

Todd Murray

Gerry Geddes
Imagine a universe where sixties music was not dominated by the British Invasion and the rise of the singer/songwriter, a universe in which male pop crooners remained at the forefront of radio play and at the top of the charts. In such a universe, singer Todd Murray would be a part of the pantheon of...

Lauren Frazza

Gerry Geddes
Feelin' Good, singer Lauren Frazza's remarkably assured cabaret debut at Pangea, is filled with great singing, striking arrangements, good humor and real emotion. Again and again, one forgets that this is her first venture into cabaret. Under Geoff Stoner's clean, precise direction, Frazza delights the audience with tales of the dogs she has known. She...

Gretchen Reinhagen

Gerry Geddes
Lately it seems that singer Gretchen Reinhagen's name pops up most often with the word "director" attached, but in her continuing residency at Pangea the words "host" and "star" are more to the point. Using her most recent night as a celebration of her new CD, Take It With Me, Reinhagen focused on a number...