Carol Woods

Robert Windeler
If any cabaret singer these days can get away with an amorphously themed show with no discernable through-line, surely it's Carol Woods. Oh, she had a sort-of title for her recent set at Feinstein's/54 Below: "Lighting Up a Stage with the Barry Levitt Trio." And that was a promise splendidly fulfilled by musical director Levitt...

Kim Maresca

Gerry Geddes
Ruthless! The Musical, the satirical take on the classic killer-kid movie The Bad Seed, is currently enjoying a successful off-Broadway revival. One of its stars, Kim Maresca (who plays the harried and put-upon mother, Judy Denmark), went a few blocks uptown to Feinstein's/54 Below in a show that focused more on Broadway than off, and...

Steven Page

Gerry Geddes
Early on in his Café Carlyle debut, singer-songwriter Steven Page admits with sly understatement that he "was in a band for a long time." That band was the Toronto-based Barenaked Ladies, which toured (and is still touring) the world and sold millions of albums, and Page was its co-founder and lead singer and songwriter. Since...

David Meulemans

Mark Dundas Wood
"Lucky to Be Me" is the title of both David Meulemans's show at the Metropolitan Room—where he is currently an "Artist in Residence"—and a CD of that show recorded live at the club. As the title suggests, the singer is the sort of guy who looks on the bright side of things. There are plenty...

Denise Donatelli

Robert Windeler
In last month's five-night engagement—at five different venues—Denise Donatelli made it clear that she is on a determined quest to expand the parameters of the jazz cabaret songbook. In "Big Noise/New York," her eleven-number set, which I saw at the Metropolitan Room, she found new gold, especially in the adult contemporary world of Sting, Beck,...

Josephine Sanges

Mark Dundas Wood
Like many cabaret-goers, I first became aware of Josephine Sanges when she competed in the Metropolitan Room's MetroStar Talent Challenge last summer (she finished second runner-up in the competition). At the time, she was a relative newcomer to cabaret. Her singing background had been largely in the world of sacred music. (As a church musical...

Mabel Madness

Gerry Geddes
Mabel Madness – The Life of Mabel Mercer is a one-woman show written by and starring Trezana Beverley, the Tony-winning star of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf. Mercer, one of the most influential vocalists in all of music and also one of the least known by the general public, pretty...

Danya Katok

Mark Dundas Wood
Lyric soprano Danya Katok is a young, fresh-faced performer with a sweet onstage demeanor. She has trained for—and launched—a career as an opera and classical concert singer, experience she gave evidence of during her recent Don't Tell Mama engagement. But she is able to play chameleon—adjusting her singing style to perform numbers with a folk-pop...

Rita Wilson

Gerry Geddes
The sixties ushered in a number of changes in the world of music: the British invasion, folk music, Motown, and many others.  One of those changes, the rise of the singer/songwriter, turned out to be a surprising double-edged sword. While it celebrated artists like Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Jimmy Webb, James Taylor, Elton John and...

Abigail Rockwell & Sean Harkness

Gerry Geddes
The rough-hewn, relaxed feel of Stage 3 at Rockwood Music Hall on the Lower East Side proved the ideal setting for singer Abigail Rockwell and guitarist Sean Harkness to debut their new pairing, "Rock & Hark." The show had a loosely structured, "what shall we do next?" feel that for the most part worked well. The two...