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.

Billy Lykken

Gerry Geddes
The provocative title of Billy Lykken's recent show at the Metropolitan Room, "Sacred Monster," refers to the posters of various music divas, like Bette Midler and Whitney Houston, that used to hang on his walls when he was growing up as, in his words, "a Filipino Viking." It's an intriguing premise for a show: exploring...

Rachelle Garniez

Gerry Geddes
Much has been written, reported, and broadcast about the celebrity death toll in 2016. While it is probably not substantially different from previous years, it did seem that a disproportionate number of major figures left us. I doubt that there has been a more personal, smart, funny, touching celebration of the artistry and legacy of...

Jesse Luttrell

Gerry Geddes
Before I go into the show that Jesse Luttrell performed at Feinstein's/54 Below with the Fred Barton Broadway Band, let me digress into a bit of metaphorical art criticism. Imagine, if you will, that you have been invited to view the work of an exciting new painter at a gallery show of fourteen of his latest...

Bob Diamond

Gerry Geddes
It's funny how over time, words can lose or change their meanings in popular culture. Before it became a kiss-of-death description, the word "nice" was a perfectly acceptable positive description of something that was neither remarkably good, nor terribly bad. In matters of performing and cabaret, it would indicate a pleasant diversion for an hour...

Lavender Songs – A Queer Weimar Berlin Cabaret

Gerry Geddes
In Lavender Songs – A Queer Weimar Berlin Cabaret, actor/singer/writer Jeremy Lawrence, in the guise of his alter ego, "kabarettist extraordinaire" Tante Fritzy, manages to turn the tiny stage at Pangea into a veritable time machine, whisking the audience away to a beautifully realized evocation of a club in Germany in the thirties—a time when...

Judy Pancoast

Gerry Geddes
I think pretty much all of us at one point or another in our music listening lives had a soft spot for The Carpenters and for Karen Carpenter's extraordinary vocals, at once light and dark, gentle and strong; in her hands, the most saccharine of songs revealed a steely spine, and the saddest of ballads...

The Meeting*

Gerry Geddes
Justin Sayre has one of the most distinctive voices in New York clubs and cabarets. I mean that in both senses of the word "voice." He sounds like no one else—his voice is arch, camp, musical, barbed, questioning and hilarious. It is just the sort of voice and sound one would expect from the creator...

Life Is for Living: Conversations with Coward

Gerry Geddes
Sir Noël Coward, the subject of Simon Green's Life Is for Living: Conversations with Coward—which was co-created by its star, Simon Green, and its musical director, David Shrubsole, and is currently on view at 59E59 Theaters—was often referred to as "the master" for his prodigious talents as composer, lyricist, playwright, director, actor (on stage, screen,...

Remy Block

Gerry Geddes
Singer Remy Block returned to Pangea with a revised version of her earlier show "On a Lonely Road: Travelin’ with Joni"—her tribute to Joni Mitchell. Her love of the iconic singer/songwriter was obvious, but she often failed to translate that feeling into successful takes on her songs. Mitchell’s lyrics/stories are often at a remove from...

Natalie Arneson

Gerry Geddes
In her new show, "I Love Being Here with You," Natalie Arneson sings songs written by and/ or associated with the great Peggy Lee. One of the tricky things about doing a tribute to a singer is that if one chooses an iconic star like Lee, or Ella Fitzgerald, or Frank Sinatra, one can pretty...