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.

Charlotte Patton

Mark Dundas Wood
The title of Charlotte Patton's Metropolitan Room show, "Celebrating Men (Bless Their Hearts)," captures the tone of the evening perfectly. Patton's program takes a partly bemused but mostly amused look at the male animal. There are no songs about how the big lugs always leave the toilet seats up, but there might well have been....

Jeff Macauley

Mark Dundas Wood
Film composer Henry Mancini (1924-94) was able to adapt nimbly to whatever professional assignment was at hand. He could write music with a hip, cool sound—for instance, the themes from TV's Peter Gunn (1958-61) and the big screen's Pink Panther films. But he could also create striking ballads—most famously, of course, "Moon River" from 1961's...

Billy Ehrlacher

Mark Dundas Wood
Setting aside the once-ubiquitous novelty hit "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh (A Letter from Camp)," I had only dim memories of mid-20th-century song parodist Allan Sherman (1924-73). But after seeing "Billy Ehrlacher: Is He Here Again?" at Don't Tell Mama, I did some YouTube research. This led me to the conclusion that Ehrlacher shares some of...

Ben Cassara

Mark Dundas Wood
He seems a most mild-mannered, unassuming gentleman. Yet when Ben Cassara seated himself center stage for a one-off appearance at Cafe Noctambulo recently, he commanded attention. Cassara's singing has an almost conversational quality at times. He clips some (not all) notes to create an almost pizzicato kind of effect—and when he does sustain a note,...

Kane Alexander

Mark Dundas Wood
A recent one-nighter at 54 Below brought Australian performer (and a Bistro Award winner in 2001 and 2002) Kane Alexander back to Manhattan. He'd first appeared in the city a decade and a half ago. An appealing performer with bright eyes and a friendly, gentle manner, Alexander has had successful turns in musical theatre back...

Kevin Dozier

Mark Dundas Wood
Kevin Dozier's recent show at the Metropolitan Room (which will return to the club in November) was called "A New York Romance." It was a suitable title, I suppose, as Dozier did touch quite a bit on his life in (and love for) New York City. But then again, how many other NYC-themed shows open...

Rob Sutton

Mark Dundas Wood
Rob Sutton's recent Don't Tell Mama show, "Not the Boy Next Door," was not so much an autobiographical program as it was a deeply personal musical reverie on what it means to live an authentic, self-aware life. That theme was hinted at in the show's opening number, Alan Jay Lerner and Burton Lane's "On a...

Brenda Braxton

Mark Dundas Wood
Other songbirds may warble sweeter notes than Brenda Braxton. Other raconteurs may spout wittier quips. But where rapport with an audience is concerned, Braxton is hard to beat. Braxton is, first and foremost, a good host—she knows how to share a moment with her listeners and what to do to make everybody feel at home....

Robyn McCorquodale

Mark Dundas Wood
When singer-pianist Robyn McCorquodale claims that her career has taken her to all seven continents, you may wonder who, exactly, comprised her audience in Antarctica. Emperor penguins? It all makes better sense when she explains that she has worked extensively as a cruise ship entertainer. Apparently she has been very successful in this career, and...

Seth Sikes

Mark Dundas Wood
More than enough words have been spent remarking on gay men's fascination with Judy Garland. But though Garland herself left the world nearly a half century ago, enthusiasm for her among this particular demographic seems to be stubbornly alive—that is, if the predominantly male turnout at 54 Below for an encore presentation of "Seth Sikes Is...