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.

Francesca Amari

Robert Windeler
Certainly deserved and heartfelt, Francesca Amari's recent tribute to Gilda Radner, at the Metropolitan Room, too often suffered from a feeling of being once removed from its subject. While Amari and Radner were both from Michigan, they grew up some 200 miles and a generation apart—and never met. Right off the bat, Amari allowed that...

David Alpher and Jennie Litt

Robert Windeler
It's always nice when someone comes up with a new way to present the old favorites in a cabaret show. The husband-and-wife team of David Alpher and Jennie Litt have embraced such a notion in their current offering at Don't Tell Mama, "The Elegant and the Immigrant: Cole Porter & Irving Berlin Together." Calling them "the...

Cheryl Ann Allen: Sophie Tucker in Person

Robert Windeler
Bearing an uncanny physical resemblance to her zaftig and otherwise larger-than-life subject, Cheryl Ann Allen, in her current show at Don't Tell Mama, nearly lives up to the title "Sophie Tucker in Person." Not only does Allen look and dress the part, she sings like Tucker and has even nailed Sophie's wheezy speaking voice. Written...

Kristoffer Lowe

Robert Windeler
In his new show at the Metropolitan Room, Kristoffer Lowe presents a dazzling tribute to a relatively forgotten composer from the first half of the 20th century, Harry Warren. Because he was not the publicity hound that so many of his songwriting contemporaries were, Warren wasn't that much of a celebrity even in his lifetime...

Jason Danieley

Robert Windeler
In his recent autobiographical show, "Romantic Notions," at Feinstein's/54 Below, Jason Danieley's song choices and performance styles covered several decades and ranged from sweetly touching to wildly energetic. This solid and eclectic singer was abetted in this ambitious enterprise by a superb trio led by music director and pianist Tedd Firth, and including bassist Pete Donovan...

Alice Ripley

Robert Windeler
In her "All Sondheim" show at 54 Below, Alice Ripley has managed to differentiate herself from the seeming plethora of cabaret performers who offer entire sets devoted to that particular deserving composer. She has done this by relating some charming personal anecdotes linking herself to most of the songs she sings here. As a kid...

Yanna Avis

Robert Windeler
In her recent one-night stand at 54 Below, "Make Some Magic" (a reprise from an appearance there in April), Yanna Avis appeared sleek and stylish. Unfortunately, her show was anything but that. She sang in a throaty voice that at times approached talk-singing, which could work well for the kind of act and venue she...

Tony Danza

Robert Windeler
His terrific current show at Café Carlyle, "Standards and Stories," finds Tony Danza in a state of what I can only describe as grounded exuberance. This seeming oxymoron combines the wisdom and taste of an impossibly lithe man on the cusp of Medicare Advantage who maintains his apparently lifelong childlike enthusiasm for just about everything....

More Music by Alex Rybeck

Robert Windeler
Composer tributes are a staple of cabaret shows, but in most cases the composer him- or herself is either deceased or otherwise unavailable to take part in such ventures. In his recent outing at 54 Below, directed by Sara Louise Lazarus, Alex Rybeck proved to be an exception. Not only did he write the music for...

Jon Freda: “Imagine Dat!”

Robert Windeler
In "Imagine Dat!" at Stage 72, Jon Freda pays an affectionate and deserved biographical tribute to 20th century showbiz icon Jimmy Durante. Freda also wrote this one-man-show-with-music and co-produced it with its director, Eren T. Gibson. The 70-minute piece has the imprimatur of the surviving Durante family, which might suggest that it would be a...