Mark Dundas Wood is an arts/entertainment journalist and dramaturg. In addition to reviewing for BistroAwards.com, he contributes regularly to theaterscene.net and clydefitchreport.com. Other reviews and articles have appeared in American Theatre and Back Stage. As a dramaturg, he has worked with New Professional Theatre and the New York Musical Theatre Festival.
Showbroads—a battling-diva entertainment with Marta Sanders and Leanne Borghesi—appeared late last year at Birdland. Recently, the lively show, under the direction of Nicolas Minas, was repeated at the same venue. The evening proved to be good old-fashioned campy fun. The comic feuding of the two actor-singers never rose to a pitch that seemed especially caustic. […]
Why do we hold on to souvenirs of childhood and adolescence, even when these artifacts are highly embarrassing? Pictures from the junior prom that look like Clearasil commercials, notebooks crammed with first attempts at becoming a haiku master, macaroni sculptures created in day camp that appear to have traveled through a world war or two—these […]
The first version of writer/director Gerard Alessandrini’s Forbidden Broadway was staged 38 years ago, and the hardy satirical revue has gone through various permutations over the decades. The latest version—Forbidden Broadway: The Next Generation!—is now running at The York Theatre Company. As with past installments, this one lacerates the pretensions and outright follies of Broadway […]
With her lilting voice and sunny stage presence, Maureen Taylor puts the cabaret listener in a receptive frame of mind, whatever she is singing. In her recent show at Don’t Tell Mama, Cosmic Connections: The Lyrics of Michael Colby (directed by Frank Galgano), she performed songs with varying colors and moods, but with an overarching […]
A friend of mine enjoys musical theatre and songs from the American Songbook, but cannot abide anyone singing such music who has an “operatic” voice. Even someone like Audra McDonald or Kelli O’Hara is a no-go for him. I thought about this friend during the opening sequence of Regina Zona’s cabaret act at the Triad, […]
There are cabaret singers who have years of experience under their belts, a warm rapport with their audiences, refined acting and singing skills, and a solid understanding of the club-singer’s repertoire. And then there are those with far less experience, whose relationship with listeners is hit or miss, and whose fluency with the cabaret catalog […]
Lorna Dallas—an American who made a name for herself as a young singer in London, and then decided to make a life there—returned to New York City’s Birdland Theater recently with an encore performance of the show she debuted there in February. Stages, directed by Barry Kleinbort, with musical direction by pianist Chris Denny, gave […]
The Marvelous Mr. Marzo (written by Joey Virgo and directed by Mark Copron) is one of those cabaret shows that is also a confessional monodrama. But instead of telling and singing of a troubled romantic relationship or a battle with personal demons, singer and actor Scott Raneri relates the tale of a family secret that […]
1969 was famous as a year full of political tumult and social upheaval. Richard Nixon began what would be a troubled presidency in January. A draft lottery was instituted to conscript American men to fight in the prolonged conflict in Vietnam. And the Stonewall riots put the nascent Gay Liberation movement in the spotlight that […]
Watching Michele Brourman play to a packed house in a recent one-nighter at Birdland Theater, I felt that I gained a deeper understanding of the work of singer-pianists in cabaret and how their art differs from that of vocalists who don’t accompany themselves. Some of what struck me is rather obvious. Singer-pianists seem to have […]
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