Club Review: Leanne Borghesi in “Borghesi’s Back!”

Betsyann Faiella
Leanne Borghesi’s first major outing since the pandemic, Borghesi's Back!,  landed at Don’t Tell Mama with a big bang and a million belly laughs. This mostly fictitious pandemic memoir/travelogue still allows Borghesi to bare her heart (in character) about missing and loving what she was obviously born to do. She had a busy 2020 planned, with engagements...

Music Review: Artemisia LeFay— “Ghosts of Weimar Past”

Penelope Thomas
Artemisia LeFay (Photo: Renee Guerrero) Many of us who are crawling out of our pandemic isolation might be ready to dive into hedonism—in the hope that it could serve as a tonic for the underlying rumble of fear we’ve lived with for the past year. Enter Artemisia LeFay’s timely Weimar-themed show...

Comedy Review: Comic Dave Konig with Musical Director Elliot Finkel

Lisa Jo Sagolla
Elliot Finkel and Dave Konig Three-time Emmy-winning actor Dave Konig’s comedy show, playing at Don’t Tell Mama on various dates through August 29, is a laugh-a-minute, Borscht Belt-style joke-fest aimed at middle-aged audiences.  For a solid hour, Konig hurls forth his Seinfeld-like observational humor (“Don’t you hate it when…?) in the...

CD Review: Eleri Ward’s “A Perfect Little Death—Suf/Sond”

Gerry Geddes
People everywhere are or will be recounting tales of what they did doing the Covid lockdown, but few will have a souvenir of that time as brilliant and creative as singer-songwriter Eleri Ward's. In a closet of her New York apartment, she fashioned A Perfect Little Death—Suf/Sond, a recording that imagines what 13 iconic Stephen Sondheim...

“The Reason to Sing — A Guide to Acting While Singing”: A Chat with Craig Carnelia About His New Book

Mark Dundas Wood
Craig Carnelia (Photo: Michael Ian) Between 1992 and 2017, singer and composer/lyricist Craig Carnelia (Working, Sweet Smell of Success) taught acting classes for singers in a studio on West 71st Street in Manhattan. His students included members of the New York City theatre community. They may have been prepping for auditions...

Livestream Review: Dawn Derow “Gypsy in My Soul—The Music of Eydie Gormé”

Ken Bloom
After more than a year’s drought, cabarets are finally reopening. And that’s very good news. I wasn’t able to get to Birdland to see Dawn Derow in her show Gypsy in My Soul—the Music of Eydie Gormé, but I was able to stream it the very next night. Obviously, streaming can’t compare to sitting in...

CD Review: Sarah Moule “Stormy Emotions”

Gerry Geddes
Sometimes, listening to a brand new CD can be like discovering the pot of gold at the end of the proverbial rainbow, and that is just how I felt listening to the latest release from British jazz vocalist Sarah Moule. Stormy Emotions consists of 12 songs by lyricist Fran Landesman and composer/pianist Simon Wallace, including 10...

CD Review: Amber Weekes’s “‘Round Midnight — Re-Imagined”

Gerry Geddes
Singer Amber Weekes’s newest release, ‘Round Midnight — Re-Imagined, has a classic, lived-in feel that allows the listener to luxuriate in its style, its romance, its intelligence, and its sheer musical richness while enjoying the rich storytelling and the trove of surprises to be found in its tracks.  There is quite a lot of backstory and factual...

Club Review: Bossa Tap Trio

Gerry Geddes
In 1952, the iconic star Fred Astaire recorded a multi-album set of the classic songs he had introduced or featured over the previous decades. Norman Granz, the producer, surrounded the song & dance man with legendary musicians from Jazz at the Philharmonic, with Oscar Peterson on piano. The songs were, of course, immaculately sung, but the...

Cabaret Setlist: “Blue Skies” — Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin

Mark Dundas Wood
Repertoire for the Once and Future American Songbook Article #15 in this ongoing series. The simple-yet-engaging standard “Blue Skies” has the distinction of being the most successful Irving Berlin number ever to debut in a Rodgers & Hart musical. It’s not clear exactly when Berlin had begun composing the song, but, according to biographer Lawrence Bergreen, the...