With her lilting voice and sunny stage presence, Maureen Taylor puts the cabaret listener in a receptive frame of mind, whatever she is singing. In her recent show at Don’t Tell Mama, Cosmic Connections: The Lyrics of Michael Colby (directed by Frank Galgano), she performed songs with varying colors and moods, but with an overarching […]
A friend of mine enjoys musical theatre and songs from the American Songbook, but cannot abide anyone singing such music who has an “operatic” voice. Even someone like Audra McDonald or Kelli O’Hara is a no-go for him. I thought about this friend during the opening sequence of Regina Zona’s cabaret act at the Triad, […]
Editor’s note: This review has been updated to correct factual errors in the original version published on December 10. We apologize for the errors and sincerely regret any misunderstanding they caused. At the beginning of A Celebration of Jewish Broadway (directed by Lina Koutrakos), which he recently brought back to Birdland Theater, Ari Axelrod cheerfully […]
Mary Ellen Ryan’s debut cabaret, No Apologies, started with a satirical Ted Talk-inspired Women’s Studies lecture, complete with Ryan in reading glasses as “Professor Feminista.” The performance alternated between this professor as our guide, and a variety of alter-egos who performed the mostly comic or ironic song list. Directed by Eadie Scott, with musical direction […]
There are cabaret singers who have years of experience under their belts, a warm rapport with their audiences, refined acting and singing skills, and a solid understanding of the club-singer’s repertoire. And then there are those with far less experience, whose relationship with listeners is hit or miss, and whose fluency with the cabaret catalog […]
Lorna Dallas—an American who made a name for herself as a young singer in London, and then decided to make a life there—returned to New York City’s Birdland Theater recently with an encore performance of the show she debuted there in February. Stages, directed by Barry Kleinbort, with musical direction by pianist Chris Denny, gave […]
With Feeling Good, his new show at The Green Room 42, vocalist Mark William celebrated the release of his debut CD, Mark William: Come Croon With Me. The recording is billed as his “critically acclaimed nightclub act”; accordingly, the show was a hybrid of nightclub- and cabaret-style performance. This is sometimes the case with a […]
Lately it seems that singer Gretchen Reinhagen’s name pops up most often with the word “director” attached, but in her continuing residency at Pangea the words “host” and “star” are more to the point. Using her most recent night as a celebration of her new CD, Take It With Me, Reinhagen focused on a number […]
In her latest show, From Lady Day to The Boss (at Don’t Tell Mama, smoothly directed by Tanya Moberly), Lisa Viggiano justly and joyously celebrated the nearly five-decade career at Columbia Records of John Henry Hammond—from his supervision of the last recordings of Bessie Smith to his signing and launching of Bruce Springsteen. In between […]
Feelin’ Good, singer Lauren Frazza’s remarkably assured cabaret debut at Pangea, is filled with great singing, striking arrangements, good humor and real emotion. Again and again, one forgets that this is her first venture into cabaret. Under Geoff Stoner’s clean, precise direction, Frazza delights the audience with tales of the dogs she has known. She […]