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.

Martha Lorin

Gerry Geddes
Jazz singer Martha Lorin has been a continuing artist in residency at Cafe Noctambulo at Pangea this year. I attended her most recent appearance at the club. I would be hard-pressed to think of a better room for this kind of sophisticated, intimate jazz show. Lorin is a take-charge, take-no-prisoners jazz vocalist in a long...

Lisa Viggiano

Gerry Geddes
Lisa Viggiano's new show, "Night in the City," which recently played at both the Laurie Beechman Theatre and Don't Tell Mama, is a delight from start to finish. She has a warmly expressive voice that can get big when it needs to, but she doesn't force the issue; she lets each song determine the size...

Abigail Rockwell

Gerry Geddes
I first heard Abigail Rockwell about a year ago, partnering with the great guitarist Sean Harkness in a duo show called Rock & Hark. It was an entertaining debut with great promise and when I saw it a second time a couple of months later at Cafe Noctambulo at Pangea, the show had tightened and had...

Josephine Peacock

Gerry Geddes
"Josephine Peacock Is Back…For the Very First Time," which debuted recently at Don't Tell Mama, had the various elements one often finds in a "first time" cabaret, such as the excitement of watching a good singer stretch her talent to reach an audience and deliver songs that she has wanted to sing for some time....

Judy Collins

Gerry Geddes
Somewhere, in a Victorian mansion, on the very top floor, in the attic, behind a wall hanging, is a small closet, and locked in that closet is an early recording that is growing older and decaying. This Wilde/Dorian Gray explanation is the only one I can come up with for the miracle that is Judy...

Spider Saloff

Gerry Geddes
"The Spider Saloff Party" at Cafe Noctambulo at Pangea marked the return of the singer-comedian to the New York cabaret scene, where she once thrived and has always belonged. Since leaving here, she has been living in Chicago and touring the world, mostly as a jazz singer. While jazz was certainly an element of this...

Bill Solly

Gerry Geddes
Back in the '70s, when Broadway began to embrace the sounds of rock and pop at the expense of more traditional legit scores, there were a number of composers, clearly enamored of the older styles, who began to see Off Broadway as an artistic and economical alternative for creating shows that celebrated the classic form....

Magnus Martensson

Gerry Geddes
Magnus Martensson was born in Sweden and studied piano, composition, and conducting in both Sweden and the U.S. He came by his easy, off-the-wall humor as naturally as he came by the frizzy mop of blond hair on his head. That hair might well be an outward symbol of the wacky thoughts that are obviously...

I Sort Of Enjoyed It

Gerry Geddes
When one comes across a show entitled I Sort Of Enjoyed It, which played recently at the Metropolitan Room, a lot of things come to mind before the show actually begins. Are the creators providing the first or last line of a potential review? Are they setting themselves up for a fall? Are they trying...

Jeff Macauley

Gerry Geddes
In Le Grand Tour, which debuted recently at the Metropolitan Room, singer Jeff Macauley completes his trilogy of shows about classic Hollywood songwriters. Having previously paid tribute to Henry Mancini and Norman Gimbel, he focused this time on Michel Legrand, a true master of film music, with over 200 film and TV scores to his...