Penelope Thomas

Credits include lead vocals for two albums with prog rock band FauveMuseum; background vocals with Shellen Lubin, and US & UK tours of Mikel Rouse’s "The End of Cinematics." She’s read poet Anne Carson’s work at The Whitney Museum and played leads in HBO Women in Comedy Festival-selected film "Pretty Dead" and the indie film, "The Interview." She studied voice with Norma Garbo, music theory with bassist Mark Wade, LoVetri Somatic Voicework through Baldwin Wallace University, and acting with Deena Levy. She taught in the New School’s Sweat musical theatre intensive. With a degree in Cultural Studies & Anthropology and a background in contemporary dance, Penelope loves thinking and writing about performance—connecting the dots between styles and genres and supporting the connection between artists and audiences.

Penelope Thomas

Rachel Ulanet

Penelope Thomas
The theme Rachel Ulanet explored in her solo debut at Feinstein's/54 Below was her quest for integrity at a politically conflicted time; it centered around the third song in the set, Neil Young's "Heart of Gold." This was Young's only U.S. #1 single; interestingly, it was recorded at a time when a back injury pushed him...

Stearns Matthews

Penelope Thomas
In his recent show at the Laurie Beechman Theatre, Golden Ticket: The Songs of Leslie Bricusse, Stearns Matthews demonstrated that he is working with an embarrassment of riches. Even more than possessing a sweet lyric baritone that testifies to a solid classical training, he radiated intelligence, integrity, and a love of music that he shared...

Broadway Sings Rihanna

Penelope Thomas
Rihanna may be to this era what Madonna was to the 1980s: a chart-topping, identity-shifting, fashion-forward, pop mogul. These days when kids bounce around their bedrooms and sing into a hairbrush, you can bet it's often Rihanna they're singing. As catchy and glossy as her superstardom is, she also has a fierce, truth-telling quality that...

Heather Villaescusa

Penelope Thomas
Heather Villaescusa took first place in last year's Mama's Next BIG Act! competition; her new show at Don't Tell Mama, The Happiness Project (A 10-week Guide), is a lively trip through the fun, angst and domestic hiccups she went through taking on a challenge that scared the pants off her…and winning. Her strong vocals support...

John Lloyd Young

Penelope Thomas
Entering wearing sunglasses—commanding in the way you can be only when you're about to sing a James Bond theme song—John Lloyd Young began his set at the Café Carlyle on opening night with 1967's "You Only Live Twice" (John Barry, Leslie Bricusse). Violinist Gokce Erem was featured right away with the catchy string theme, establishing...

Kayley Hill

Penelope Thomas
Fresh from Nashville, Kayley Hill is an heir to the Dolly Parton sound, with a sweet, clear, cut-through voice and a whole lot of power. Her country and rockabilly sensibilities are contemporary: she's equally at home throwing in a very complex soul melisma as she is working that break between registers or occasionally yodeling as...

Shemekia Copeland

Penelope Thomas
The Blues are the best! From rock blues, to bluegrass and country, to gospel, there's someone out there who has it worse than you do. If the cause is a cheating lover, a lost job, breaking the law because you had to, or the devil himself, in the blues you're a good person in a...

Eric Hoffman

Penelope Thomas
Eric Hoffman can swing, and he has a versatile baritone voice and a good jazz education as an instrumentalist, but there's an unexpected twist: he really hits his stride when he's being a lounge singer. There may be something in the corny fun, nostalgia, and swagger of a lounge act that catches Hoffman's sense of...

Paula West

Penelope Thomas
When it comes to singers, do we have to choose between a musician and a storyteller? Any well-realized choice along the spectrum from pure music to pure theatre can work for a vocalist, and in the best singers, it's hard to tell where one stops and the other begins. Paula West is that kind of...

Marnie Klar

Penelope Thomas
Delightfully bookended by "Stay Awake" (Robert B. & Richard M. Sherman), Marnie Klar's new show, Bedtime Stories, features nighttime, fairy tale, and storybook songs. Skillfully directed by Tanya Moberly, Klar presents her theme in a brief but illuminating introduction, in which we learn that this her her first cabaret that isn't…personal. And here is where...