Matt Wolfe and Lainie Munro

Mark Dundas Wood
The jazz world has long looked to Broadway for melodic fodder. Jazz singers have forever riffed on musical lines from the likes of Cole Porter and Rodgers & Hart. And that makes particularly tidy sense if you accept the often-stated proposition that the two major cultural contributions that America has made to the world are jazz...

Carole Demas and Sarah Rice

Mark Dundas Wood
The recent Carole Demas and Sarah Rice offering at the Laurie Beechman Theatre, Thank You for Your Love: Our Celebration of Tom Jones & Harvey Schmidt, was no ordinary tribute show. The singing duo, who have both enjoyed a long professional and personal relationship with lyricist Jones and composer Schmidt (and with each other), offered much...

Stephanie Trudeau

Robert Windeler
She rightly labeled Chavela: Think of Me, her recent show at Pangea, a "docu-cabaret." Indeed, Stephanie Trudeau's homage to ranchera singer Chavela Vargas, directed by Deborah Wright Houston, went far beyond the usual tribute hour or so. Vargas, who was new to me, came vividly to life thanks to Trudeau's carefully researched narration (all in...

Luke Babylon, Christian Magician

Gerry Geddes
Luke Babylon, Christian Magician is the satiric/spiritual alter ego of out gay comic Zach Zimmerman, who recently left a career-on-the-rise in Chicago to move to New York City. At the Duplex a week or so ago, he made his Manhattan cabaret debut as a New Yorker with this zany show. I've followed him with interest...

Linda Kahn and Maria Corsaro

Robert Windeler
Two suburban ladies of a certain age studied theatre in college, on separate coasts, some 40 years ago. They each worked in show business for a few years after graduation, but marriage, motherhood and career changes kept them from their goal of finding work in musicals among the lights of Broadway. About two years ago,...

Amy Beth Williams

Robert Windeler
In her ravishing show Carried Away at Don't Tell Mama, Amy Beth Williams proved to be a superb singer, a subtle actress, and a compelling interpreter of lyrics. Beautifully directed by Tanya Moberly, this 65-minute set displayed Williams as an artist painting on a broad but seamless canvas. While the show's ostensible theme was war...

Salty Brine

Gerry Geddes
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, the album Nilsson Schmilsson by Harry Nilsson, and memories of time spent at a boys' camp in New Hampshire combine in the kaleidoscopic dreamscape called Welcome to the Jungle, currently on display at Pangea. This is the latest in a series called The Living Record Collection written and performed...

Ron Dabney

Gerry Geddes
At the top of Oh Broadway, My Broadway, his new show at the Metropolitan Room, Ron Dabney promised that he was going to give us new takes on songs from the Great White Way. To be honest, the songs were not exclusively Broadway and the arrangements did not stray all that far from the traditional....

Marquee Five

Mark Dundas Wood
What fun it was to start off Tony Awards weekend at the Laurie Beechman Theatre with Broadway By The Letter, an hour of musical-theatre songs from the vocal ensemble Marquee Five (Mick Bleyer, Lynsey Buckelew, Adam West Hemming, Vanessa Parvin, and Sierra Rein). Musical director Hemming wrote the lush and intricate arrangements that the group...

Lisa Yaeger

Gerry Geddes
At the Metropolitan Room, Lisa Yaeger's new show, Jersey Girl, is not only a tribute to her place of birth and current residence, but also a celebration of the musical legends that the state has given the world. It's a simple but effective premise, offering the singer a great variety of musical styles and genres...