Natalie Douglas

Tonya Pinkins
"Hello Dolly," Natalie Douglas’s recent tribute to Dolly Parton at Birdland, provided a memorable cabaret experience. Her vocal instrument is incomparable; she segues easily from a smoky contralto to a pinging, piercing mix that is as rich and resplendent as early Streisand. What makes her especially unique is her sunny disposition. She knows it and...

Teresa Eggertsen-Cooke

Mark Dundas Wood
There's a particular challenge for cabaret performers who are singer-pianists. When they come to the stage and sit down at the instrument, the very configuration can suggest a "piano bar" sort of show. Such singers face the ivories as much as they face the audience. Their hands are primarily occupied with the keyboard and are...

Georga Osborne

Kevin Scott Hall
On opening night of her new show, "back," beloved cabaret singer and comedienne Georga Osborne was greeted like a rock star as she made her way to the stage through a packed room at Don't Tell Mama—she was "back" for her first solo outing in ten years, and fans and well-known cabaret scene-makers hadn't forgotten....

Ira Lee Collings

Kevin Scott Hall
There could hardly be a more appropriate song for Ira Lee Collings to open his show "Off the Charts!" with than "I Want to Be Happy" (Irving Caesar, Vincent Youmans), which he performs with a childlike energy and joy, even inviting his audience to share in his enthusiasm. Now 79, Collings immediately gives the impression...

Louis St. Louis

Robert Windeler
The cabaret act as backers' audition is not a brand new concept. But Louis St. Louis took it to extremes in this outing, with generous selections from five of the shows for which he has written music (and mostly co-written lyrics) that have yet to make it to Broadway—apparently not for lack of trying. Collectively, the...

Mighty Real: A Fabulous Sylvester Musical

Kevin Scott Hall
It is rather surprising that until now nobody has done a stage show or film about the life of Sylvester, a flamboyant African-American singer whose flame burned brightly and memorably during the disco years. (A documentary is apparently in the works.) Years before Boy George, Sylvester was cross-dressing (although he rejected the label "drag queen"),...

Luba Mason

Tonya Pinkins
Luba Mason slinked onto the stage of the Metropolitan room in a cream floor-length gown accented with blue brocade flowers riding the curves of her lithe frame. Her hips swayed, her shoulders kept the beat, her voice soared from smoky bassoon to blaring soprano sax in a rendition of Van Morrison's "Moondance" that was for...

Patrick DeGennaro

Kevin Scott Hall
A versatile veteran of New York’s cabaret scene, Patrick DeGennaro has become known not only for the many hats he wears (singer in many styles, musical director, songwriter, and vocal coach), but also for the way he has transformed his look over the years. Now a tattooed (he admitted an addiction), muscular, mustached rocker in...

Jason Morris

Mark Dundas Wood
Jason Morris certainly has talent. He is blessed with a malleable singing voice with a pleasing timbre. He seems at home with the conventions of contemporary pop singing. He favors melisma, but keeps it in check. For his show "Musically Yogic" at the Metropolitan Room, Morris has surrounded himself with some top-of-the-line collaborators, including director...

Tom Andersen

Mark Dundas Wood
The closing performance of Tom Andersen's recent Don't Tell Mama show (his first solo program in almost a decade) had a casual pre-Labor Day vibe. He wore cool summer attire, befitting a box social. And he'd tucked plenty of fresh, thoughtfully prepared musical treats in his picnic hamper. He opened the show with "Gosh, It's...