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.

Deborah Karpel

Gerry Geddes
In her show The Midwood Miracle, recently at Pangea, singer-writer-storyteller Deborah Karpel told the story of her estrangement from, and eventual reconciliation (however tentative) with, her late father, with whom she had a common familial arrangement: "not asking anything of each other" and barely speaking. In the kind of desperation that is fairly indigenous to...

Josephine Sanges

Gerry Geddes
Josephine Sanges has a voice so good it's almost criminal. In her latest show, Come Rain or Come Shine – Josephine Sanges Sings Harold Arlen, which recently gave an encore performance at the Laurie Beechman Theatre, that voice was ravishing on Arlen's classic melodies. Her technical ability and artistry went a long way to gloss over...

Two Tuckers

Gerry Geddes
Two Tuckers (drag artist Golden Delicious and pianist-singer Tucker) is a ragtag, scattershot, hellzapoppin delight that has nothing on its mind but entertainment. If you need a moment to decipher the joke of the title, take it now. The duo wrote an eponymous opening number that delightfully explained it all. It also gave a preview...

Cole Escola

Gerry Geddes
The piano on the stage at Joe's Pub is covered with wigs of many hues and styles. Beneath it is a large black plastic trash bag, which will be revealed to contain a variety of dresses, gowns and costumes. Next to the piano is a full-size xylophone, to which attention will revert again and again...

Alaska Thunderf*ck

Gerry Geddes
Alaska Thunderf*ck achieved stardom as a finalist on the fifth season of RuPaul's Drag Race. In Alaska & Jeremy: On Golden Girls, her show at the Laurie Beechman Theatre, she proves that this is no fluke, but is based on solid, undeniable talent. Working with her accompanist (or more accurately her co-star), Handsome Jeremy, she gives...

Dr. Bradley’s Fabulous Functional Narcissism

Gerry Geddes
At Don't Tell Mama, Dr. Bradley Jones tells a familiar cabaret story in his show Dr. Bradley's Fabulous Functional Narcissism: Young man with troubled childhood dreams of being a performer, follows those dreams to New York City, works his way up to Broadway but fails—in spite of a decade long run in the original Broadway...

Max von Essen

Gerry Geddes
Max von Essen has built a laudable New York theatre career over a number of years in such shows as Death Takes a Holiday, Dance of the Vampires, An American in Paris, and, currently, Anastasia. He recently brought his talents to the stage at Birdland, a club that he confessed he had dreamed of playing...

Karen Oberlin

Gerry Geddes
Singer Karen Oberlin recently brought her new show, Confound Me: Songs in Search of Something, to The Triad. The Triad's stage can be tricky. It is quite high compared with other clubs in the city, which means that a singer's focus has to be set a couple of inches lower than what might otherwise be...

Alan Cumming

Gerry Geddes
Alan Cumming is a Broadway star, a movie star, a television star, and an author, but seeing him at Joe's Pub in his new show, Legal Alien, it is apparent that the cabaret stage is where his myriad talents really shine. Immigration, strong women, and aging are the trio of themes revealed as the evening...

Joyce Lyons

Gerry Geddes
Joyce Lyons titled her welcome return to Don't Tell Mama The Music of the '60s…Jazz Style, but after delivering a fiery "Yesterdays" (Jerome Kern, Otto Harbach) she admitted that it was a lie. As she started to put the show together, she realized that little if any of the material was from that decade—but when...