Marin Mazzie

Robert Windeler
Many cabaret artists appropriate all sorts of songs to illustrate their life stories. But judging from her very winning recent show (a reprise from 2011-2012) at 54 Below, Marin Mazzie may be the only singer who chronicles her first two decades of musical influences in such specific fashion, employing the decidedly non-rock pop songs—including a bit...

Tim Di Pasqua

Kevin Scott Hall
Tim Di Pasqua, a veteran singer/songwriter in New York's cabaret scene for over two decades (by way of his origins in San Francisco), took to the small stage in Don't Tell Mama's brick room to deliver a show consisting solely of his own compositions. Remarkably, he informed us that it was the first time he had...

Pamela Lewis

Robert Windeler
In her astonishing new show at the Metropolitan Room, "New York State of Mind: The Songs of Billy Joel," Pamela Lewis both did admirable justice to the prolific composer/performer and re-interpreted his songs as singularly her own. Offering new, vibrant, self-created arrangements of 15 Joel compositions—both familiar and relatively obscure—from 1971 to 1986, Lewis changed...

Janis Siegel

Mark Dundas Wood
For listeners like me with fond memories of Janis Siegel's soaring, raucous gospel-jive vocals on Manhattan Transfer's big 1975 hit "Operator," the prospect of hearing her in an intimate setting like Jazz at Kitano was enticing. She did not disappoint. I caught the second set of the evening. Siegel arrived on the stage dressed in...

N.W.A. Show (Negroes With Asthma)

Mark Dundas Wood
These days the worlds of stand-up comedy and cabaret in New York City may occasionally intersect, but mostly, it seems, they just sort of brush up against one another. The Duplex, however, is one cabaret venue where stand-up shows crop up fairly often. In recent months, the "N.W.A. Show (Negroes With Asthma)" has appeared on...

Karen Jacobsen

Kevin Scott Hall
Newly minted American citizen Karen Jacobsen (born and raised in Australia) celebrated by bringing her pared-down but classy act to Stage 72 recently. Effortlessly charming, Jacobsen is an accomplished singer, pianist, and songwriter, and on this particular night it was just she, playing and singing and sharing colorful stories. One such story was how, as a...

Cheyenne Jackson

Roy Sander
Two Cheyenne Jacksons are making their Café Carlyle debut: Cheyenne Jackson the handsome actor-singer of stage, film, and television; and Cheyenne Jackson the man, who has faced a number of personal challenges and tells us about them. Headliners at the upper echelon of clubs may sometimes talk about their careers, but it's quite rare for...

Melinda Hughes

Roy Sander
The Weimar Republic was created shortly after the end of World War I, giving Germany the first democratically elected parliamentary government in its history. After only fourteen years, this period of unprecedented political, personal, and artistic freedom was dealt a crushing blow with Hitler's ascent to power. While it lasted, it produced an exceptional body of songs...

Alan Winner: The Boy Who Loved Bassey

Robert Windeler
"The Boy Who Loved Bassey," the crisp, hour-long show Alan Winner performed (and co-wrote with Ben Cameron, who directed) at the Metropolitan Room (and earlier this year at the Laurie Beechman Theatre), was so much more than a tribute to a great singer who used to be. Alive and well at almost 78 (on January 8,...

Richard Weidlich & Susannah Mars

Robert Windeler
Susannah Mars, Richard Weidlich, Bill Wells Susannah Mars and Richard Weidlich, longtime performing partners from Portland, Oregon, breezed into town for what probably was, judging from the enthusiasm of their fans in the Metropolitan Room audience, a long-overdue New York appearance for this pair of out-of-towners. Both performers are clearly seasoned...