Laura Benanti

Mark Dundas Wood
"Let Me Entertain You" Feinstein's at Loews Regency  –  May 1 and 22, 2011 Laura Benanti's legit vocal chops, physical beauty, and radiant stage presence work together to invoke comparisons to elegant early-1960s musical-theatre songstresses. If she'd been born a few decades earlier, Benanti would have competed for Broadway roles with such classy performers as...

Elaine St. George

Roy Sander
"InspiRAYtion: The Musical Legacy of Ray Charles" Metropolitan Room  –  April 27, May 3, 4, 9 Elaine St. George may not have done many shows in the fourteen years since I first saw her sing, but to paraphrase a remark Spencer Tracy made about Katharine Hepburn in Pat and Mike, what she's done has been "cherce"....

Jim Van Slyke

Roy Sander
"The Sedaka Show" Feinstein's at Loews Regency  –  April 4, 11, 18, 25 I first saw Jim Van Slyke's Neil Sedaka show in March 2009, when it was in its infancy. Indeed, as I recall that engagement was the show's maiden voyage, at least in New York waters. Since then, he has performed it any number...

Champagne Pam (Pamela Lewis)

Mark Dundas Wood
"Champagne Pam is…'The Dog Walking Diva!'" Don't Tell Mama  –  April 13, 14, 15 Using a clever packaging strategy, Champagne Pam arrived onstage wearing a leopard-patterned jacket, accented with a flute of bubbly and a large, leopard-patterned bag. From the top of her act, she subliminally suggested the pampered, exotic feline, ready to tease and...

Lonette McKee

Elizabeth Ahlfors
"Can't Help Lovin'" Oak Room at the Algonquin  –  April 5 - 30 In 1986, Lonette McKee portrayed the great Billie Holiday in off-Broadway's Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill. This was a solo realization of Lady Day in the 1950s shortly before she died, her voice ragged and rough but still thrillingly expressive,...

Catherine Russell

Mark Dundas Wood
Allen Room, Jazz at Lincoln Center – March 30 & 31 Catherine Russell's well-publicized Allen Room appearance generated a real sense of occasion—the feeling that here was a singing artist in full musical bloom. The show featured many cuts from the singer's recently released CD, Strictly Romancin'. But the set was also a tribute to...

Nathan Gunn

Elizabeth Ahlfors
"An Evening with Nathan Gunn" Café Carlyle  -  March 29 - April 16 With a commanding baritone voice, GQ features, and an offhand sense of humor, Nathan Gunn is definite matinee idol material for any stage. He comes from a background of "WOO" ("World of Opera") and has appeared in opera houses, including the Metropolitan...

Dean Regan

Mark Dundas Wood
"Give My Regards to Broadway" Metropolitan Room  –  March 26, 27 The persona that Dean Regan employed in his Metropolitan Room show was that of a stage-struck teenage kid—one who has somehow assumed the body of a mature man but who remains enchanted by The Miracle That Is Broadway. When actor-singer Regan looks at Times...

Sigali Hamberger

Roy Sander
"A Toast to Ava Gardner"  Metropolitan Room  –  March 19, 25,  April 5, 6 In her new show, Sigali Hamberger takes us on a journey through Ava Gardner's personal life and professional career—her background, desires, ambitions, marriages, love affairs, film roles, and leading men—en route, singing songs that illuminate significant events and relationships. How fitting...

Shirley Jones

Roy Sander
"An Evening of Story and Song" Feinstein's at Loews Regency -  March 15 - 19 A sizable segment of the general public probably knows Shirley Jones primarily as the mother on the hit TV series The Partridge Family, but the rest of us may be more familiar with her film work (over thirty movies, among...