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.

Jack Jones

Mark Dundas Wood
Feinstein's at Loews Regency  –  June 26 - 30 "I know your image of me is what I hope to be." When Jack Jones sang that line from Leon Russell's "A Song for You," early in his program at Feinstein's, I felt he was confessing something expressly to me. I have often found myself defending...

Maude Maggart

Mark Dundas Wood
"Into the Garden" Feinstein's at Loews Regency  –  June 5 - 16 The selections Maude Maggart sings in "Into the Garden" are not your father's pop songs. More likely they'd have been on your great-grandfather's play list. Maggart focuses mainly on music written a century or so ago. According to press notes, the show was...

Elaine St. George

Mark Dundas Wood
"Take Me As I Am" Metropolitan Room  –  June 6, 7, 13, 14 In "Take Me As I Am"—billed as "a witty & opinionated look at Joni Mitchell on relationships"— Elaine St. George performs a spate of songs written by or otherwise associated with Mitchell. Some selections were penned by Mitchell's romantic partners (Graham Nash, James...

Carole J. Bufford

Mark Dundas Wood
"speak easy." Metropolitan Room – May 5, 10, 19, 24, June 16 2011 Bistro Award winner Carole J. Bufford celebrates the music of the Prohibition era, backed by Grammy-winning Vince Giordano & the Nighthawks, in a classy, solid and thoroughly entertaining program—a must-hear for anyone interested in the history of American popular music (and a...

Grace Cosgrove

Mark Dundas Wood
"Spend an Evening with Grace" Metropolitan Room  –  April 29, 30, May 2, 4, June 8, 23 The theme of Grace Cosgrove's Metropolitan Room show, she tells us, is "the delicate experience of love." There's something appropriately delicate about her singing, too. At least that's what I thought after listening to her first few selections....

Loli Márquez-Sterling

Mark Dundas Wood
"I Love That Story!" The Triad  –  April 26 and 29 There's an exuberant athleticism about Loli Márquez-Sterling. Whether performing in English or Spanish, she harnesses every inch of her slim self when she sings. An abundance of joy suffuses her performance--which is not to say she comes across as a Pollyanna who cannot acknowledge...

Judy Kuhn

Mark Dundas Wood
Feinstein's at Loews Regency – March 6, 8, 9 and 10 Poised and serene, actor-singer Judy Kuhn exhibited a regal demeanor from the first moment she stepped onto the Feinstein's stage. She moved her arms—her whole body, in fact—gracefully yet assertively. At a passionate moment, her hand fluttered to her throat as if to cool...

Michael Kirk Lane

Mark Dundas Wood
"Songs from the Rock, the Street, and the Hood" Don't Tell Mama – February 7, 9, and 16 It took me a while to warm up to Michael Kirk Lane in this return of his debut show featuring songs from classic children's television programs. But halfway through the set, in the final part of a...

Eric Michael Gillett and La Tanya Hall

Mark Dundas Wood
"Nothing to Lose But Your Heart – The Songs of Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty" Feinstein's at Loews Regency – February 21-25 The songwriting team of composer Stephen Flaherty and lyricist Lynn Ahrens often writes songs for musicals with a show-business setting. That's something the audience learns early on in this program featuring the duo's...

Alec Mapa

Mark Dundas Wood
"Baby Daddy" Laurie Beechman Theatre – February 9, 10, 11 At the top of his show at the Laurie Beechman Theatre, actor-comedian Alec Mapa told the audience about his recent Las Vegas engagement. He said he had been asked by management to watch his language. Mapa assured the largely gay and gay-friendly Beechman crowd that...