Lauren Fox

Mark Dundas Wood
With her recent Metropolitan Room show, "Groupies—The Muses Behind the Legends of Rock & Roll," Lauren Fox brought her considerable theatrical mystique and dramaturgical smarts to a show about the sometimes indomitable and sometimes pitiable young consorts of 1960s and 1970s rock musicians. Two of the muses whom Fox showcased—Marianne Faithfull and Stevie Nicks—became household names...

Charlotte Patton

Mark Dundas Wood
The title of Charlotte Patton's Metropolitan Room show, "Celebrating Men (Bless Their Hearts)," captures the tone of the evening perfectly. Patton's program takes a partly bemused but mostly amused look at the male animal. There are no songs about how the big lugs always leave the toilet seats up, but there might well have been....

Yanna Avis

Robert Windeler
In her recent one-night stand at 54 Below, "Make Some Magic" (a reprise from an appearance there in April), Yanna Avis appeared sleek and stylish. Unfortunately, her show was anything but that. She sang in a throaty voice that at times approached talk-singing, which could work well for the kind of act and venue she...

Tony Danza

Robert Windeler
His terrific current show at Café Carlyle, "Standards and Stories," finds Tony Danza in a state of what I can only describe as grounded exuberance. This seeming oxymoron combines the wisdom and taste of an impossibly lithe man on the cusp of Medicare Advantage who maintains his apparently lifelong childlike enthusiasm for just about everything....

Jeff Macauley

Mark Dundas Wood
Film composer Henry Mancini (1924-94) was able to adapt nimbly to whatever professional assignment was at hand. He could write music with a hip, cool sound—for instance, the themes from TV's Peter Gunn (1958-61) and the big screen's Pink Panther films. But he could also create striking ballads—most famously, of course, "Moon River" from 1961's...

More Music by Alex Rybeck

Robert Windeler
Composer tributes are a staple of cabaret shows, but in most cases the composer him- or herself is either deceased or otherwise unavailable to take part in such ventures. In his recent outing at 54 Below, directed by Sara Louise Lazarus, Alex Rybeck proved to be an exception. Not only did he write the music for...

Jon Freda: “Imagine Dat!”

Robert Windeler
In "Imagine Dat!" at Stage 72, Jon Freda pays an affectionate and deserved biographical tribute to 20th century showbiz icon Jimmy Durante. Freda also wrote this one-man-show-with-music and co-produced it with its director, Eren T. Gibson. The 70-minute piece has the imprimatur of the surviving Durante family, which might suggest that it would be a...

Billy Ehrlacher

Mark Dundas Wood
Setting aside the once-ubiquitous novelty hit "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh (A Letter from Camp)," I had only dim memories of mid-20th-century song parodist Allan Sherman (1924-73). But after seeing "Billy Ehrlacher: Is He Here Again?" at Don't Tell Mama, I did some YouTube research. This led me to the conclusion that Ehrlacher shares some of...

Ben Cassara

Mark Dundas Wood
He seems a most mild-mannered, unassuming gentleman. Yet when Ben Cassara seated himself center stage for a one-off appearance at Cafe Noctambulo recently, he commanded attention. Cassara's singing has an almost conversational quality at times. He clips some (not all) notes to create an almost pizzicato kind of effect—and when he does sustain a note,...

Somewhere in This Song: The Music and Lyrics of Nicholas Levin

Roy Sander
An evening of the songs of Nicholas Levin was long overdue, so the new revue "Somewhere in This Song" at the Metropolitan Room is a cause for celebration. Surveying the scene of contemporary songwriters, one finds some who may have something to say, but whose lyrics are lacking in basic craftsmanship or marked by infelicitous word/phrase...