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.

Dora Rubin

Mark Dundas Wood
Dora Rubin understands the usefulness of surprise in a cabaret set. This singer—who in years past would have been described as "offbeat"—takes risks that performers far more experienced than she might avoid. And while the surprises she hatches may land with varying degrees of precision, she never fails to hold the audience's attention. I found...

Todd Murray

Mark Dundas Wood
Todd Murray brought a new iteration of his show “Croon” to The Triad for a few performances in August. It was both a cabaret show and a history lesson in American popular music. Between numbers, Murray talked about men's approaches to romantic pop singing—beginning with Rudy Vallee in the 1920s; proceeding through the eras of...

Joe Gulla

Mark Dundas Wood
Joe Gulla's monologue The Bronx Queen is the first installment of a trilogy that was originally presented on Manhattan's Theatre Row a few years ago. Earlier this year it was restaged in the cabaret setting of Joe's Pub, and on August 20 it had an encore performance there. The work explores themes that have become...

Barbra Streisand

Mark Dundas Wood
It's been several decades since Barbra Streisand had any real connection to the world of New York cabaret. But that, of course, is how her career began—in such small clubs as the Bon Soir and the Blue Angel, where she became a sensation while en route to becoming a legend. In 2009, she gave a...

Loni Love

Mark Dundas Wood
A comedian, actor, and author, Loni Love is probably best known as a panelist on television's talk fest The Real. Her brand of stand-up may not necessarily stick out in a crowd—she trades in traditional comic staples: race and ethnicity, politics, religion, sex, the misbehavior of celebrities. And she embraces, with seemingly no hesitation, the...

Austin Pendleton and Barbara Bleier

Mark Dundas Wood
Austin Pendleton and Barbara Bleier have a sweet rapport with one another in their show "Late Nights in Smoky Bars" (at Pangea; directed by Barbara Maier Gustern). The two portray longtime friends who meet regularly over potent potables to sort out their lives and offer each other support. (At least that's how it seems at...

Andrea Axelrod

Mark Dundas Wood
Love—you impossible thing! Elusive? Obviously. But sometimes you can also be slippery even to define. Your borders are often blurry and difficult to trace. Andrea Axelrod explores this particular conundrum in her new show at the Metropolitan Room: "Almost Like Being in Love (songs on the cusp of love)." She covers a variety of scenarios...

Claudine Cassan-Jellison

Mark Dundas Wood
Learning about your family history can be fascinating. But how often will strangers share your enthusiasm for stories about the lives of your parents and grandparents? Not especially often, I would guess. Claudine Cassan-Jellison beat the odds with "Just Visiting," her new show at Don't Tell Mama. The evening was built around the saga of...

Marissa Mulder

Mark Dundas Wood
"Marilyn in Fragments"—Marissa Mulder's new show, directed by Sondra Lee and performed at the Laurie Beechman Theatre—doesn't follow the format of an ordinary cabaret "tribute" show. In her portrayal of Marilyn Monroe, Mulder doesn't break character until the very end of the show, and there is seldom a pause taken to allow for audience applause...

Minda Larsen

Mark Dundas Wood
Part of Minda Larsen's prize package for winning last summer's MetroStar Talent Challenge at the Metropolitan Room was a four-performance engagement at the club. Called "My Southern Song" and directed by Marilyn Maye, the resulting show has arrived. In it, Larsen—originally from Jacksonville, Florida—takes a look at her heritage, singing songs about the American South,...