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.

Frank Torren

Mark Dundas Wood
There are cabaret shows that challenge and even rattle an audience's sensibilities. And then there are shows that comfort and reassure. Frank Torren's "Moment to Moment" falls decidedly in the latter category. Call Torren's approach old-fashioned and you won't be wrong. But that deep, smooth, and warm voice of his is a tonic without a...

Tommy Tune

Mark Dundas Wood
Is Broadway showman Tommy Tune too oversized a talent to be contained by a cabaret stage? The answer seems to be: literally yes, but figuratively no. As Tune told the audience at the opening performance of his Café Carlyle-debut show, "More Taps, Tunes and Tall Tales," his celebrated height put him in danger of sustaining a...

Shana Farr

Mark Dundas Wood
Following a 2011 show that featured the music of Julie Andrews, Shana Farr returns with an ambitious program highlighting the music and lyrics of Noël Coward and Cole Porter. Thoughtfully assembled and heartfully rendered, the show is a sort of extended musical monologue that examines the contours of one woman's love life. It's a fine...

Gretchen Reinhagen

Mark Dundas Wood
Early in "Listen to the Music: The Songs of My 70's" (directed by Barry Kleinbort) Gretchen Reinhagen notes that in the 1970s, various pop-music genres—rock, country, funk, disco, and so on—all competed for the public's attention. In her program, she gives us samples from this bountiful and eclectic smorgasbord. But she doesn't stop there. She...

Lauren Fox and Ritt Henn

Mark Dundas Wood
The idea of building a cabaret show around music from the eerie and surreal filmography of David Lynch would not likely be a good one for many in New York's cabaret community. It takes a certain kind of grit and a love of risk that many performers simply lack. Luckily, Lauren Fox and Ritt Henn...

Eric Yves Garcia Trio

Mark Dundas Wood
Vocalist and pianist Eric Yves Garcia is in jazz mode in his current gig at Bemelmans Bar at the Carlyle Hotel, and it suits him. Backed by two talented and playful musicians—guitarist Nick Russo and bassist Ritt Henn—he sings some of the most familiar titles from the Great American Songbook with an obvious enthusiasm for...

Christine Reisner and Don Rebic

Mark Dundas Wood
The extent to which you'll enjoy "Look Who's in Love"—a musical celebration of romance from newlyweds Christine Reisner and Don Rebic (conceived by Reisner, directed by Michael Bush, and co-written by Reisner and Bush)—might best be gauged by how well you tolerate Valentine's Day cards with frilly hearts and adorably mischievous Cupids. Having been married...

Bistro winner Euan Morton launches new cabaret series at Players Club

Mark Dundas Wood
photo: Walter McBride On January 27, actor and singer (and 2009 Bistro Award winner) Euan Morton performed two shows in the ballroom of the Players Club at Gramercy Park. Accompanied by the brass jazz band Grandpa Musselman & His Syncopators, Morton sang a collection of vintage 1920s and 1930s popular music,...

Sally Darling

Mark Dundas Wood
Imagine finding a vintage 78 rpm record in a thrift store, taking it home and discovering it to be remarkably free of hissing sounds, crackling noises or skips. That may help to explain what you get with Sally Darling. You don't hear a sound like hers often these days, but it's as welcome as the sharp...

Mae West’s “Diamond Lil”

Mark Dundas Wood
Don't Tell Mama – September 15, 22, October 27, November 3, 10, 17, 24 If today's audiences know about Diamond Lil, it's likely because of the 1933 film She Done Him Wrong, in which Mae West played a character named not "Diamond Lil" but rather "Lady Lou." But West and her playwright collaborator, Adeline Leitzbach,...