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.

“I Wish You Love: The French Songbook with David Marino”

Gerry Geddes
I Wish You Love: The French Songbook with David Marino is a beautifully crafted, wonderfully performed showcase for a remarkable young singer from Canada named David Marino. His youth and his homeland and his song choices might lead the uninformed to place Marino in the Michael Bublé school of new residents in the world of the...

A Grab Bag of Cabaret Shows in a Wide Array of Styles

Gerry Geddes
It seems each year the holiday season starts earlier and gets here quicker, and inevitably leaves me with a backlog of reviews to shows I have seen over the past few months in danger of not seeing the light of print before the new year arrives.  Here’s what I have, in no particular order.  Josephine...

A Tale of Two Tributes: One Hit, One Miss

Gerry Geddes
The concept of a tribute show in cabaret is appealing to performers for a number of reasons.  First, and most obvious, would be love for the honoree and the wish to pay homage to them. It could be to shine a spotlight on elements of the life or works of the honoree that are not as...

Club Review: Peter Calo & Anne Carpenter—”Timeless Singer-Songwriters”

Gerry Geddes
A soft blanket on a snowy night. A cool lemonade on a summer afternoon.  Mac and cheese on a cool October Saturday.  They all spell “comfort.”  Add to that list an evening spent listening to singer-guitarist Peter Calo and vocalist Anne Carpenter singing the songs of Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon, Paul Simon, James Taylor, and...

Club Review: Can Yasar—”A Turkish Rhapsody”

Gerry Geddes
Can (pronounced “John”) Yasar had a dream growing up in his native Turkey with which many of us can identify.  His wish was to move to New York City and live his true life, find his true happiness, and pursue his true career all of which would have been denied had he stayed in his...

Club Review: “The Rocky Horror Skivvies Show”

Gerry Geddes
The Skivvies are the brainchild of Lauren Molina and Nick Cearley, singer/actor/musicians with many Broadway and theatre credits including Sweeney Todd, Rock of Ages, Pageant, and Marry Me a Little; they banded together to perform stripped-down arrangements of eclectic covers, often in inventive (and possibly insane) mashups. They also strip themselves down when they perform...

Club Review: Janis Siegel with Yaron Gershovsky—”The Colors of My Life”

Gerry Geddes
For his contributions to Broadway and the Great American Songbook, composer Cy Coleman deserves every accolade and tribute that has been or could be bestowed upon him. One of the latest, and one of the best, was presented by acclaimed (and Bistro Award-winning) jazz vocalist Janis Siegel at the legendary Blue Note. With repertoire taken from her...

Club Review: Tierney Sutton with Shelly Berg— “Songs of Loss, Justice, and Hope”

Gerry Geddes
If you are going to call a show Songs of Loss, Justice, and Hope, all I can say is you had better deliver.  And that’s just what Tierney Sutton and Shelly Berg did in their new show at Birdland Theater—delivered! Sutton sat on a stool center stage next to the piano which was turned so that...

Club Review: The Kinsey Sicks—”Deep Inside Tonight”

Gerry Geddes
The Green Room 42, which recently celebrated its own sixth anniversary, played host to the 30th anniversary Show of “the dragapella, beauty shop quartet"—The Kinsey Sicks. As its title Deep Inside Tonight implies, it was a parody of a cable news show through a skewered, madcap, political, hilarious lens. It was an evening filled with original material...

Club Review: Dane Terry—”How to Play the Piano”

Gerry Geddes
Dane Terry splits his artistic life between painting and music. The musical half frequently leads him to cabaret stages around town. Most recently he brought his show, How to Play the Piano, to Pangea in the East Village.  The show is a look at the singer/composer’s back catalog of material, which he has revisited and sometimes...