Mark Dundas Wood

Presenting an entire program of Noël Coward numbers would, I imagine, give many an American cabaret singer pause. Whose songs are more steadfastly British—not only in lyrical content but also in sound and style? (OK, Gilbert and Sullivan's, but who else's?) Also, Coward is one of the rare musical talents of his generation and genre...

Mark Dundas Wood

Kendra Cunningham is a good human being. Or, at any rate, she’s trying hard to be one. Growing up in a Catholic, Irish-Lithuanian-American household, she began saying affirmations at age 13. Her favorite is “I love and adore myself,” a motto that has apparently morphed into a full-blown mantra to counter her frequent self-doubts. At...

Gerry Geddes

Alan Cumming is a Broadway star, a movie star, a television star, and an author, but seeing him at Joe's Pub in his new show, Legal Alien, it is apparent that the cabaret stage is where his myriad talents really shine. Immigration, strong women, and aging are the trio of themes revealed as the evening...

Gerry Geddes

Joyce Lyons titled her welcome return to Don't Tell Mama The Music of the '60s…Jazz Style, but after delivering a fiery "Yesterdays" (Jerome Kern, Otto Harbach) she admitted that it was a lie. As she started to put the show together, she realized that little if any of the material was from that decade—but when...

Robert Windeler

It would take a daring performer with solid and wide-ranging singing chops and a sense of humor to pull off an effective and memorable tribute to six major musical artists from the last century in a one-hour show. Fortunately for us in the audience, Andrea Axelrod was more than up to this task in Centenary,...

Penelope Thomas

The theme Rachel Ulanet explored in her solo debut at Feinstein's/54 Below was her quest for integrity at a politically conflicted time; it centered around the third song in the set, Neil Young's "Heart of Gold." This was Young's only U.S. #1 single; interestingly, it was recorded at a time when a back injury pushed him...

Mark Dundas Wood

Brazilian songwriter, singer, and keyboardist Marcos Valle has been an international musical presence since the early 1960s. Looking at displays of his album covers online, you can trace his march of time. There's Valle, just a kid—bright-eyed, clean-cut, and turtle-necked. And there he is a few years later, propped up shirtless in a bed—his hair...

Gerry Geddes

For his debut at The Triad, singer Mark Anthony Lee chose a tried-and-true staple of cabaret: songs sung by his favorite singers and recording artists. But this was by no means a run-of-the-mill soul/R&B concert. He didn't sing the usual hits, but instead made unexpected choices from deep in these artists' repertoires—album tracks that had...

Gerry Geddes

Singer-songwriter Spencer Day has begun a once-a-month residency at The Green Room 42 in celebration of his new CD, Angel City, which, as you might guess, is a tribute to and contemplation of Los Angeles. Given that premise, it is fitting that the overall feel of the show is very '60s/'70s West Coast jazz. The...

Gerry Geddes

One of the rare joys of cabaret reviewing (and cabaret going, for that matter) is coming upon a show that is unlike anything else that’s out there—a new and unexpected experience. The Circus Is Cancelled, which played recently at the Duplex, is one such show. It featured a clown, a mime, a magician, a pianist,...