Duchess

Robert Windeler
For those of us who occasionally crave a close-harmony dose of the Boswell Sisters or the Andrews Sisters in our cabaret-attending lives (and there may be more of us than we care to admit) Duchess will do nicely. And if any one of us desires a small dose of the tropical strumming of vintage Hawaiian...

Remy Block

Gerry Geddes
Singer Remy Block returned to Pangea with a revised version of her earlier show "On a Lonely Road: Travelin’ with Joni"—her tribute to Joni Mitchell. Her love of the iconic singer/songwriter was obvious, but she often failed to translate that feeling into successful takes on her songs. Mitchell’s lyrics/stories are often at a remove from...

Jen Fellman

Mark Dundas Wood
In her recent show "Frenchy," at Don't Tell Mama, Jen Fellman told of her three-year stint living in Paris, striving to transform herself into a Parisian. The show was a striking piece of cabaret theatre, graced by the sharp direction of John-Richard Thompson and the sensitivity and show-woman-ship of Fellman herself. The evening was not...

Natalie Arneson

Gerry Geddes
In her new show, "I Love Being Here with You," Natalie Arneson sings songs written by and/ or associated with the great Peggy Lee. One of the tricky things about doing a tribute to a singer is that if one chooses an iconic star like Lee, or Ella Fitzgerald, or Frank Sinatra, one can pretty...

Laura Osnes

Robert Windeler
  Many—perhaps too many—cabaret performers frame their autobiographical shows in terms of songs that influenced their decisions to aspire to a show business career, or that they eventually got to sing for a paying audience—or both. In her terrific show at Feinstein's/54 Below, Laura Osnes turned this "and-then-I-sang" cliché on its head. Osnes, who at...

Tune in Time

Mark Dundas Wood
Presented by Amy Engelhardt and Heather Shields, the musical-theatre game show "Tune in Time" has been playing in New York City for a couple of years now. Currently it appears regularly at the York Theatre Company. This rollicking show pits three composer/lyricist teams against one another as they strive to write coherent and entertaining songs...

Martha Lorin

Gerry Geddes
Jazz singer Martha Lorin has been a continuing artist in residency at Cafe Noctambulo at Pangea this year. I attended her most recent appearance at the club. I would be hard-pressed to think of a better room for this kind of sophisticated, intimate jazz show. Lorin is a take-charge, take-no-prisoners jazz vocalist in a long...

Lisa Viggiano

Gerry Geddes
Lisa Viggiano's new show, "Night in the City," which recently played at both the Laurie Beechman Theatre and Don't Tell Mama, is a delight from start to finish. She has a warmly expressive voice that can get big when it needs to, but she doesn't force the issue; she lets each song determine the size...

Carol Woods

Mark Dundas Wood
Carol Woods's show at The Metropolitan Room, "Ain't We Got Fun: The Music of Richard Whiting" (directed by Scott Coulter) marked the 125th anniversary of Whiting's birth. But the show on November 12 was a double celebration, as it was also Woods's birthday eve. And the singer was in a particularly sassy mood during this performance,...

Billie Roe

Robert Windeler
For her current show at the Metropolitan Room, "Monopoly," Billie Roe has fashioned, with the assistance of director Mark Nadler and musical director Steven Ray Watkins, a compelling and affecting spoken-and-sung narrative based on the beloved and long-running board game. She begins by recounting her own childhood memories of often cutthroat family Monopoly games, specifically an...