Mark Dundas Wood

Mark Dundas Wood is an arts/entertainment journalist and dramaturg. He began writing for BistroAwards.com in 2011. Currently, he writes the "Bistro Bits" column for the site. Other reviews and articles have appeared at theaterscene.net and talkinbroadway.com, as well as in American Theatre and Back Stage. As a dramaturg, he has worked with New Professional Theatre and the New York Musical Theatre Festival. He is currently literary manager for Broad Horizons Theatre Company.

Lucie Arnaz

Mark Dundas Wood
It's serendipitous, I believe, that the first lyrics to be sung during the first official engagement at Manhattan's new Birdland Theater are from Irving Berlin's "There's No Business Like Show Business." The choice of this song supports the idea that the 100-seat room will be more aligned with a Broadway sound and sensibility than with...

Kathryne Langford

Mark Dundas Wood
No hard-and-fast rule dictates how much spoken word cabaret singers should include in their shows. Generally, spoken remarks don't occur in a show until after the second number. Then, depending on the thematic nature of the program, they're sprinkled throughout the remainder of the show (though not usually before every single number). Lately, some performers...

Steven Zumbo

Mark Dundas Wood
"You know, we eschew themes," Steven Zumbo announced early in his recent show at Don't Tell Mama, a two-night engagement directed by Helen Baldassare. (He could have added that show titles would also be shunned—he dispensed with that convention as well.) The theme-free policy was fine by Zumbo's enthusiastic audience, and fine by me, too....

Jason Henderson

Mark Dundas Wood
Presenting an entire program of Noël Coward numbers would, I imagine, give many an American cabaret singer pause. Whose songs are more steadfastly British—not only in lyrical content but also in sound and style? (OK, Gilbert and Sullivan's, but who else's?) Also, Coward is one of the rare musical talents of his generation and genre...

Kendra Cunningham

Mark Dundas Wood
Kendra Cunningham is a good human being. Or, at any rate, she’s trying hard to be one. Growing up in a Catholic, Irish-Lithuanian-American household, she began saying affirmations at age 13. Her favorite is “I love and adore myself,” a motto that has apparently morphed into a full-blown mantra to counter her frequent self-doubts. At...

Marcos Valle

Mark Dundas Wood
Brazilian songwriter, singer, and keyboardist Marcos Valle has been an international musical presence since the early 1960s. Looking at displays of his album covers online, you can trace his march of time. There's Valle, just a kid—bright-eyed, clean-cut, and turtle-necked. And there he is a few years later, propped up shirtless in a bed—his hair...

Whitney Chapman

Mark Dundas Wood
There's a straightforward, almost conversational quality to Whitney Chapman's vocals that works well for some of the mid-tempo and up-tempo songs in her Burt Bacharach/Hal David show (directed by Barry Kleinbort) at Don't Tell Mama—especially on songs with lyrics about everyday concerns, such as waking up and applying makeup or putting a hundred down to...

Brad Simmons and Lennie Watts

Mark Dundas Wood
I'm not certain I fully understand the point of the musical genre "Blue-Eyed Soul," which is essentially a nickname for soul music (and/or Rhythm & Blues) sung by white people. The term was reportedly coined by an African-American deejay at a radio station in Philadelphia who wanted to subtly inform his listeners that certain of the...

Emily Ellet

Mark Dundas Wood
Last summer I attended the final round of the MetroStar Talent Challenge at the Metropolitan Room, where I immediately found myself rooting for young singer Emily Ellet. She was someone I'd never previously heard—or heard of—but I was taken with the clarity of her voice, her concentration, her respect for (and ease with) lyrics, and...

Robbie Torres

Mark Dundas Wood
The Emcee in the musical Cabaret, first seen on Broadway in 1966, is an enigmatic figure. Existing entirely in the world of the Kit Kat Klub cabaret in Berlin, he barely qualifies as a "character" in the show at all. One might better call him a "presence." In the 2001 book Open a New Window,...