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.

Kyle Eastwood Quintet

Robert Windeler
In his recent show at Blue Note, Kyle Eastwood proved that when it comes to instrumental jazz, paternity and osmosis can provide a solid foundation for adventurism and variety, as well as tradition. The eldest child of Clint Eastwood, Kyle literally learned the genre from his father, and went on to work for him as...

Kim Sutton

Robert Windeler
Bouncy and brassy, in "Anchors Away!," her current show at Don't Tell Mama, Kim Sutton pays a robust tribute to Fleet Week and the United States Navy, in which she served for six years in the mid-1980s. She starts out with a driving, semi-disco "Star Spangled Banner"—no audience standup necessary—which leads right into the anthem...

Alexis Cole

Robert Windeler
In her recent one-night show at 54 Below, Alexis Cole demonstrated vocal dexterity, solid musicianship and a willingness to range over a variety of sources for her material. Her technical delivery, whether in a soothing or upbeat contralto, was superb, vocal jazz at its best. Further on the plus side, she beautifully resurrected two lesser-known...

Jennifer Sheehan

Robert Windeler
In her current show at 54 Below, "Stardust: A Night in the Cosmos," Jennifer Sheehan gets lost in the stars, mostly in a good way. No fewer than sixteen full songs referring to the moon, planets, space exploration, and just plain old distant points of light in the sky show this exceptional singer and radiant...

Donna Hayes

Robert Windeler
In her show "Ordinary Miracles," at the Metropolitan Room, Donna Hayes makes a strong case for her title's seeming to be an oxymoron. In her view, it's those unexpected miracles that matter most, and they are to be found all around us, not so much the major ones we pray or long for. These minor...

Delphi Harrington and Woody Regan

Robert Windeler
In their current show at the Metropolitan Room, Delphi Harrington and Woody Regan, two pleasantly seasoned performers of a certain age, with help from director Ann McCormack, have managed to create the feel of performing ad hoc at a party in someone's living room. This is mostly a good thing, as "Cowardly Swann," their awkwardly...

Maureen McGovern

Robert Windeler
In her current show at 54 Below, based on the work of an eclectic and worthy group of female singers and songwriters, Maureen McGovern evinces no diminution in her vocal and dramatic warmth and power. She may be, as she says on stage, "slouching toward 66" and suffering from "CRSS (Can't Remember Shit Syndrome)," but...

Diane Schuur and the DIVA Jazz Orchestra

Robert Windeler
"With Love from Deeds and DIVA," the Valentine's weekend show at the Iridium, paired West Coast contemporary jazz singer Diane Schuur with the New York City-based DIVA Jazz Orchestra (15 strong for this booking) on songs about love, appropriately to the occasion. This upbeat collaboration (the first for diva and Diva in several years) provided...

Marin Mazzie

Robert Windeler
Many cabaret artists appropriate all sorts of songs to illustrate their life stories. But judging from her very winning recent show (a reprise from 2011-2012) at 54 Below, Marin Mazzie may be the only singer who chronicles her first two decades of musical influences in such specific fashion, employing the decidedly non-rock pop songs—including a bit...

Pamela Lewis

Robert Windeler
In her astonishing new show at the Metropolitan Room, "New York State of Mind: The Songs of Billy Joel," Pamela Lewis both did admirable justice to the prolific composer/performer and re-interpreted his songs as singularly her own. Offering new, vibrant, self-created arrangements of 15 Joel compositions—both familiar and relatively obscure—from 1971 to 1986, Lewis changed...