Uptown Express

Kevin Scott Hall
"Gotta Be This or That" Metropolitan Room  -  June 24, 25 From the moment the male quartet Uptown Express took to the Metropolitan Room stage in their matching, fitted, gray sharkskin suits, black shirts and purple ties, there was a sense that one was in for an evening of polished entertainment. Here was a good-looking...

Susan Siegel

Mark Dundas Wood
"Starts & Stops" The Duplex  –  June 5, 12, 19 Among the songs that singing actress Susan Siegel included in her Duplex show was Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields's "It's Not Where You Start" from Seesaw, which begins with the lyrics "It's not where you start, it's where you finish/ It's not how you go,...

Becca Southworth

Kevin Scott Hall
"Add a Dash of Diva" Laurie Beechman Theatre  -  June 7 In her recent debut show, "Add a Dash of Diva," at the Laurie Beechman Theatre, Becca Southworth—who resembles a young and mischievous Blair Brown—took on the formidable task of singing songs associated with her favorite divas from her childhood to the present day. How...

Nicolas King

Roy Sander
Don't Tell Mama  –  June 4 - 7 The first time I heard Nicolas King sing was when I played his CD, "Nineteen"—which, not coincidentally, is his age. I could say that I was quite impressed, but that would be like describing the Empire State Building as rather tall. To use a term I don't...

Lea Salonga

Elizabeth Ahlfors
"Lea Salonga: New York in June" Café Carlyle  –  June 7 - 25 Lea Salonga—who won a Tony and every other award playing Kim in Miss Saigon, who starred as Eponine in Les Miserables and Mei Li in Flower Drum Song—yes, that girl with the radiantly youthful face and glorious voice, has grown up. Now...

Marissa Mulder

Mark Dundas Wood
"Look to Your Heart: The Songs of Jimmy Van Heusen" The Metropolitan Room  –  June 4, 8, 16 Listening to Marissa Mulder, I was reminded of the old Baldwin organ my father had in the 1960s, a model that had a panel of tabs beside the keyboard that you would flip to get different effects:...

The Best Is Yet to Come: The Music of Cy Coleman

Roy Sander
59E59 Theaters  –  May 25 – July 3 That Cy Coleman was one of America's great composers is not up for debate. His contributions to the Broadway stage and his catalogue of individual songs are prodigious, not only in quantity, but also in quality and stylistic variety. His Broadway shows include Sweet Charity, Little Me,...

Liz Rubino

Kevin Scott Hall
"If Only…" The Duplex  –  June 3 In her debut show, "If Only…," Liz Rubino, a theatre actress from Ohio and recent New York University Master's degree recipient, showed a lot of promise for a future in cabaret. She asked a question common to many performers who make their way to The City: "If only...

Bettye LaVette

Elizabeth Ahlfors
"An Evening With Bettye LaVette" Café Carlyle  –  May 24 – June 3 This is a performer who is so riveting and unique, so indefatigable, that after two hours of nonstop singing, Bettye LaVette puts down her mike and sings her encore a cappella, Sinead O'Connor's "I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got," defining one...

Ryan O’Connor

Kevin Scott Hall
"Ryan O'Connor Eats His Feelings" Laurie Beechman Theatre  –  May 2, 9, 16, 23 Ryan O'Connor—YouTube sensation, Top Five finalist on Your OWN Show: Oprah's Search for the Next TV Star last winter, friend to stars on both coasts, and a singer and actor in his own right—certainly came to the Laurie Beechman Theatre this...