Robert Windeler

Robert Windeler is the author of 18 books, including biographies of Mary Pickford, Julie Andrews, Shirley Temple, and Burt Lancaster. As a West Coast correspondent for The New York Times and Time magazine, he covered movies, television and music, and he was an arts and entertainment critic for National Public Radio. He has contributed to a variety of other publications, including TV Guide, Architectural Digest, The Sondheim Review, and People, for which he wrote 35 cover stories. He is a graduate of Duke University in English literature and holds a masters in journalism from Columbia, where he studied critical writing with Judith Crist. He has been a theatre critic for Back Stage since 1999, writes reviews for BistroAwards.com, and is a member of The Players and the American Theatre Critics Association.

Jeff Macauley

Robert Windeler
Probably no one but Jeff Macauley could have, or would have, fashioned such a narrowly focused cabaret show as his current offering at Pangea, Hollywood Party: Movie Songs 1928-1936. And he didn't just do this; the show is a reprise of a run from more than two decades ago, so we know that he's held...
Jeff McCauley

Ann Kittredge

Robert Windeler
She was already two-thirds of the way into One Night Only, her recent show at Feinstein's/54 Below, before Ann Kittredge acknowledged that if she "had to pick one song" to explain what her evening was about, it would be this one: "Before the Parade Passes By" (Jerry Herman). Kittredge sang the number in a slower,...

Dawn Derow

Robert Windeler
In so many ways, 1941 was a very good year in America. It was the year Joe DiMaggio scored hits in a record 56 straight games, leading the Yankees to yet another World Series win. The movies gave us such classics as Citizen Kane and Rebecca, and it cost only 25 cents to see them....

Dietrich Rides Again

Robert Windeler
I can't help it. I had planned on falling in love with Marlene all over again when I went to see Dietrich Rides Again. But, alas, it didn't happen. I had seen the legendary star almost fifty years before, on what we all believed was to be her farewell tour. (She was to do several...

Peter and Will Anderson

Robert Windeler
The Anderson Twins want us all to understand that Harold Arlen, this week's honoree in the brothers' ambitious month-long Songbook Summit series, is every bit the equal of the other three subjects of their tribute (Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers). It's just that Arlen was somewhat of a loner, never had a real Broadway...

The ManOPause Boys

Robert Windeler
The 1990s called. They want their clichés back. The ones about Viagra and the other aspects of male late-middle aging. Plus, the decade would like to retire at least some of its hopeful sayings, such as "50 is the new 35." Well, the clichés and sayings abounded on the Triad stage the other night, in...

Meow Meow

Robert Windeler
In her recent show at Joe's Pub, she came on stage both tentatively and as if expecting to be showered with roses by her adoring fans. The woman who was once known as Melissa Madden Gray from Australia sported a black Medusa hairdo, and was dressed outlandishly in a shredded black organdy overskirt not quite...

Stephanie Trudeau

Robert Windeler
She rightly labeled Chavela: Think of Me, her recent show at Pangea, a "docu-cabaret." Indeed, Stephanie Trudeau's homage to ranchera singer Chavela Vargas, directed by Deborah Wright Houston, went far beyond the usual tribute hour or so. Vargas, who was new to me, came vividly to life thanks to Trudeau's carefully researched narration (all in...

Linda Kahn and Maria Corsaro

Robert Windeler
Two suburban ladies of a certain age studied theatre in college, on separate coasts, some 40 years ago. They each worked in show business for a few years after graduation, but marriage, motherhood and career changes kept them from their goal of finding work in musicals among the lights of Broadway. About two years ago,...

Amy Beth Williams

Robert Windeler
In her ravishing show Carried Away at Don't Tell Mama, Amy Beth Williams proved to be a superb singer, a subtle actress, and a compelling interpreter of lyrics. Beautifully directed by Tanya Moberly, this 65-minute set displayed Williams as an artist painting on a broad but seamless canvas. While the show's ostensible theme was war...