Raquel Cion

Penelope Thomas
Raquel Cion's show at Pangea is entitled Me & Mr. Jones: My Intimate Relationship with David Bowie. Like Bowie, Cion is a shapeshifter. With layered costumes by David Quinn, she peels back the story of her childhood, teenage years, and adult relationships with the icon in his many incarnations. With her low, textured voice, the music...

Shana Farr

David Sabella
Shana Farr has brought her latest show, It's Not Where You Start: The Songbook of Barbara Cook, to the Laurie Beechman Theatre. Farr certainly looks the part. One can see in her the bright face of a young Barbara Cook, ready to take the stage, and the world, by storm. And, she sounds the part,...

Tammy Faye Starlite

Gerry Geddes
When I entered Pangea on the Lower East Side to see Tammy Faye Starlite's show She Comes in Colors, little did I realize that I would be witnessing a 2018 reincarnation of a Warhol superstar. Her slightly exaggerated look with platinum hair, shockingly red lips, blazing eyes, and high-drama voice would fit in perfectly on a...

The 29th New York Cabaret Convention

Bistro Awards
The 29th edition of the New York Cabaret Convention, presented by the Mabel Mercer Foundation, took place October 9-12 at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Penelope Thomas, Gerry Geddes, Robert Windeler, and Mark Dundas Wood covered the four nights for us. Following are their thoughts.     Cabaret Today! – by Penelope Thomas...

Max Vernon

Gerry Geddes
Max Vernon, award-winning composer/lyricist of the off-Broadway hits The View Upstairs and KPOP, has taken up residency at Joe's Pub with Existential Life Crisis Lullaby, which each month will present songs from works in progress. The opening salvo gave us a preview of The Tattooed Lady (written with Obie Award-winning playwright Erin Courtney). In addition...

John Kelly

Penelope Thomas
John Kelly's current version of Joni Mitchell, on view at Joe's Pub, is stripped-down—not officially drag, yet still bearing traces of his earlier incarnations of the character, which featured a wig and costume. This Joni is John in simple clothes, on guitar, supported by pianist and music director Zecca Esquibel. Listening to him, I was...

Deborah Karpel

Gerry Geddes
In her show The Midwood Miracle, recently at Pangea, singer-writer-storyteller Deborah Karpel told the story of her estrangement from, and eventual reconciliation (however tentative) with, her late father, with whom she had a common familial arrangement: "not asking anything of each other" and barely speaking. In the kind of desperation that is fairly indigenous to...

Michael Cummings

Mark Dundas Wood
At one point in his September 14 show at the Triad, Michael Cummings acknowledged friends and family in attendance. When he had finished, it seemed he'd greeted nearly everyone in the room. Of course, a performer's loved ones naturally show up to offer support, but it's no accident that they turned out in droves—always enthusiastic...

Katie Thiroux

Penelope Thomas
Katie Thiroux does the work of two people on stage, which is a remarkable feat of coordination that stems from a single soulful and clever musical sensibility. There are some wonderful singing bass players in jazz these days; Esperanza Spalding, Nicki Parrott, and Kate Davis come to mind. Thiroux takes her rightful place among these...

Josephine Sanges

Gerry Geddes
Josephine Sanges has a voice so good it's almost criminal. In her latest show, Come Rain or Come Shine – Josephine Sanges Sings Harold Arlen, which recently gave an encore performance at the Laurie Beechman Theatre, that voice was ravishing on Arlen's classic melodies. Her technical ability and artistry went a long way to gloss over...