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.

David Meulemans

Mark Dundas Wood
"Lucky to Be Me" is the title of both David Meulemans's show at the Metropolitan Room—where he is currently an "Artist in Residence"—and a CD of that show recorded live at the club. As the title suggests, the singer is the sort of guy who looks on the bright side of things. There are plenty...

Josephine Sanges

Mark Dundas Wood
Like many cabaret-goers, I first became aware of Josephine Sanges when she competed in the Metropolitan Room's MetroStar Talent Challenge last summer (she finished second runner-up in the competition). At the time, she was a relative newcomer to cabaret. Her singing background had been largely in the world of sacred music. (As a church musical...

Danya Katok

Mark Dundas Wood
Lyric soprano Danya Katok is a young, fresh-faced performer with a sweet onstage demeanor. She has trained for—and launched—a career as an opera and classical concert singer, experience she gave evidence of during her recent Don't Tell Mama engagement. But she is able to play chameleon—adjusting her singing style to perform numbers with a folk-pop...

Liliane Montevecchi

Mark Dundas Wood
When she takes the cabaret stage, Liliane Montevecchi is not just regal. She's an entire royal court. At center is the monarch herself, with her imposing demeanor and effortless power to keep all eyes on her person. But she's also her own jester—throwing mischievous, sometimes naughty quips to the audience. Likewise, she's her own bodyguard....

John Epperson

Mark Dundas Wood
You might think that John Epperson, having been for decades in the employ of the glamorous and imposing stage sensation Lypsinka, would have picked up some of his mistress's grand manner. But that's clearly not the case. The eponymous star of "John 'Lypsinka' Epperson: An Evening with Lypsinka's Maid" (at Feinstein's/54 Below) isn't exactly mousy....

Megan Loughran

Mark Dundas Wood
The title of Megan Loughran's recent show at Don't Tell Mama, "I Sing Standing Up," gives a sly indication of the show's content. Her act was a hybrid. It was, at base, a stand-up comedy show, but there were songs sprinkled throughout—some (but not all) of which were comic. As a comedian, Loughran called to...

Minda Larsen

Mark Dundas Wood
With "Johnny Mercer: Trav'lin' Light" (directed by Peter Napolitano and presented at Urban Stages' Winter Rhythms festival), Minda Larsen offered a reboot of a program of songs with lyrics by Mercer that she had first presented in Manhattan at the Metropolitan Room in 2014. Between that original engagement and this one-off encore, Larsen won the...

Jack Bartholet

Mark Dundas Wood
The fact that Jack Bartholet has a big, flamboyant, impressive-sounding voice became evident a mere measure or two into "Nature Boy" (eden ahbez), the first number of his recent Duplex show, "Two Drink Minimum." The young singer let loose with a battery of rafters-shaking high-tenor notes, delivered with theatrical flourishes. He is a born belter—no...

Tony Babino

Mark Dundas Wood
Apparently we ain't heard everything yet. It's been 65 years since Al Jolson's death, but the performer still continues to claim attention. Few people today have memories of Jolson live and in person. But larger numbers will recall the 1946 biographical film The Jolson Story, in which Larry Parks starred (with Jolson himself providing vocal...

Lisa Jason

Mark Dundas Wood
Bullying in schools has likely been a problem ever since schools were first established. (I can personally attest that it was alive and unwell in the early 1960s.) Only lately, though, has it gotten the attention it deserves from commentators and activists. In Massachusetts in the 1970s, Lisa Jason lived through a childhood filled with...