Last year, I made it to almost every offering at the Winter Rhythms series at Urban Stages. This year, I mixed things up a little. I elected to see shows only from performers whose work and talents I was unfamiliar with, and to write about them in greater detail. 

As usual Winter Rhythms was presided over by Frances Hill (the theatre’s founding artistic director) and Sue Matsuki (series producer). Congratulations to them on delivering another festival of music and comedy!

Without more ado, here’s what I saw this December: 

Not an Identical Twin for the Tony

For the gala opening of the series, this salute to the late, great singer—the man who gave San Francisco an American Songbook anthem—was just the right choice. Philadelphia-based Eddie Bruce is not widely known in New York City, but that could change after this appearance. He has an unforced charm, a self-effacing good humor, and a way with a Tony Bennett hit.

Bruce doesn’t exactly impersonate Bennett, but he captures his attitude and phrasings in a pleasing, entertaining way. He is a relaxed performer, so he didn’t rush through the program, but he did keep things moving and had plenty of energy for those big Bennett song endings (and the plaintive, yearning phrases that Bennett would use as he approached those big endings). 

He began this show with the usual Bennett opener (“Watch What Happens”) and signed off with the customary (pre-encore) closer (“How Do You Keep the Music Playing”). His encore was also the anticipated one (think sourdough bread and Ghirardelli chocolate). He told us that his musical triumvirate has always been Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, and Ella Fitzgerald. But, while he had plenty to say about Tony and Ella, he didn’t elaborate on Frank in this show. He talked about his own career, though, even sharing a revealing film clip from very early in his life as a performer.

Backing him were three energetic musicians: Dean Schneider (musical director and pianist), Kevin MacConnell (drums), and the especially exuberant Lew Leabman (drums).

With 2026 being the centenary of Tony Bennett (on August 3), we may have more opportunities soon to experience Eddie Bruce. ~ (The Magic and Music of Tony Bennett, 12/3/25)

Center Stage at Last 

Pianist Ron Drotos has worked at the keyboard for star performers, as an educator, and—on Broadway—as musical director for such shows as Swinging on a Star, Smokey Joe’s Café, and The Life. But he told the audience at Urban Stages, at his show Ron Drotos & Friends, that this was his first time ever as a headlining performer

He soloed in this show, however, on only a handful of numbers. He began the program with Chick Correa’s “Armando’s Rhumba,” creating an appealingly erratic rhythm that sounded at moments as though his hands were somehow hiccupping as they ran over the keys. His other solo performances similarly highlighted his showmanship. He performed the Pachelbel Canon in D as if it had been written by Scott Joplin, and he played the first part of an elaborate “All the Things You Are” entirely with his left hand.

The rest of the show was mostly ceded to Drotos’s three singing guest stars, each of whom performed some songs in a jazzy mode. Leslee Warren explored the brooding contours of “Mood Indigo.”  Susan Mack brought us further Duke Ellington magic, with “Love You Madly” (for which Drotos had written an adjunct melody line that Mack graced with an original “vocalese” lyric). Juliet Ewing not only sang numbers from her Gershwin repertoire but also delivered an effective “One Note Samba,” including a verse sung in Portuguese.

The show’s one significant problem was that some of the guests’ singing (especially that of Warren) was overpowered by the volume of the piano. But this difficulty didn’t fatally damage this show, which—like Eddie Bruce’s opening-night salvo—took a mostly lighthearted, merry-and-bright approach. ~ (Ron Drotos and Friends, 12/4/25)

The Miracle of (More) Life

This presentation by performer and songwriter Steve Schalchlin was both a coming-out story and the tale of a medical miracle. Accompanied by a kind of Greek chorus of three (Blake Lee Zolfo, Alicia Irving, and Brian Krinsky), along with Bill Goffi (bass guitar) and Gavin Gold (guitar), our headliner, seated at the piano, began by telling stories of growing up as a preacher’s kid in Texas. He admitted to having been a “hillbilly” back then. 

Coming to terms with his gay identity was especially complicated for the young Steve, who had been shielded by parents and church from the scary joys of secular life. He admitted that when he first heard the term “Broadway,” he had no idea what it meant. He thought that it perhaps just referred to “old songs.” He eventually acclimated himself to his new life, meeting his life partner, Jim Brochu, whom he later married. But the tables turned again when Schalchlin was found to be HIV-positive at a time when there were no proven life-sustaining anti-AIDS drugs. Schalchlin got sick, and he thought his life was over. Enter the miracle, in 1994: a medication called Crixivan, developed by a fellow named Dr. Bruce Dorsey.

The show was informal: almost a kind of jam session. Schalchlin would interrupt his patter to say hello to someone he’d just noticed in the audience, or he would clarify aloud which member of the singing trio would do what. You could be severe about this and think, I paid for a performance, not a rehearsal. Or you could look at it positively and think, How nice to get a glimpse of what’s involved in assembling a program like this one. (I think everyone present went with the second option.)

The show was almost like a cantata—one with a multitude of songs by Schalchlin, in a variety of styles. Among the best-received were “At Least I Know What’s Killing Me” and “My New York Life.” The trio of speakers/singers proved to be a talented bunch, each getting in some solo time. Mark Janas filled in briefly at the piano, and Brochu took the lead on the show’s final song, “Christmastime.”

The evening’s most thrilling moment came at show’s end when Schalchlin introduced a special guest to the Winter Rhythms audience: none other than Dr. Bruce Dorsey, who received a standing ovation, plus a citation from NYC’s City Council, for his groundbreaking development of Crixivan. ~ (Living in the Bonus Round, 12/9/25)

Meanwhile, Stateside….

My mother once said she disliked the song “I’ll Be Seeing You” because it reminded her of the fears and sadness of World War II. She said much the same thing of “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” I have no problems with these songs myself, and I think “I’ll Be Seeing You” has a particularly beautiful melody. But I didn’t live through that war, and she did.

Kathy Kaefer, who sang popular music from the war years in her Winter Rhythms show, Kiss Me Once: Stories from the Homefront, spoke early in the show about experiencing a strange nostalgia for an era that she hadn’t lived through. Maybe that response helps explain why I find these songs worth revisiting while my mother clearly did not. And Kaefer is from a later generation than mine. In fact, among the survivors from the Greatest Generation whom she interviewed for the show were her two grandmothers. 

Poised before a microphone beside a small table, Kaefer wore a dress with a 1940s aspect. She had bright red hair styled in a 1940s fashion. And she sang, with great concentration, a long list of popular songs from the era. Many of her selections are still widely familiar today—“You’ll Never Know,” “Moonlight Serenade,” “Long Ago and Far Away,” for example.  And certain of them have managed to survive apart from their WWII connotations. But others are specific to the war era—such as “I Lost My Heart at the Stagedoor Canteen,” “(There’ll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover,” and the feisty musical complaint of an early-shift Rosie the Riveter called “Milkman, Keep Those Bottles Quiet.”

Accompanied by the fine pianist and music director David Shenton, Kaefer was a calm and centered presence at the mic. Both her speaking voice and her singing voice were clear, warm, and direct. She told the stories of particular people that made her audience contemplate how many similar narratives have disappeared with the dwindling of the Greatest Generation.

An earlier version of this show won a Bistro Award in 2006, but this new iteration featured additional content, including memories shared with Kaefer from a long-married couple: drama students who wed immediately before he went off to boot camp and she began her long wait for his return. 

I found this to be a singularly effective—and affecting—hour of music and memories, and I hope that people who didn’t see it will get another chance soon. ~ (Kiss Me Once: Stories from the Homefront 12/10/25)

Sketchy Characters

Warming up the audience for this sketch comedy show was a stand-up comedian: the rather deadpan LizaBanks Campagna. Her set dealt with her time working as a NYC tour guide. If “buttoned-down” comedy in the Bob Newhart style is ever again in vogue, perhaps the low-key, sometimes sardonic Campagna will lead the way.

The Taxi Cab group then took over the stage, setting up a table and a few chairs for the first comedic playlet. (The sets for this show were as basic as basic can get. However, the costumes were often quite imaginative, and the sound effects were excellent.)

Eleven sketches were enacted by five actors: Douglas Lisk, Marina Mulholland, Liam Doran, James Johnston, and Joanna Pinto. Each sketch was probably an average of three to four minutes long. (I didn’t time them.) One sketch was prerecorded, edited, and projected on a screen. As the title of the show suggests, all sketches in some way addressed a “home for the holidays” theme.

Some of the scenes were a bit “paint by number.” In one sketch, for instance, a young man brings his new girlfriend home to meet his family, whereupon she learns the hard way that, in order to survive around this family, she must display ecstatic, screaming reactions about whatever Christmas gift she unwraps. (And she needs to be sincere about it, too.) This piece was competently performed, but its fish-out-of-water setup seemed a variation on a fairly worn Saturday Night Live staple.

When the Taxi Cab Comedy cast members ventured out on some truly bizarre limbs, however, things really took off. The prime example was a sketch about a kindly grandmother who, disappointed by Democrats in recent months, has swerved further to the left, becoming radicalized as a fervent disciple of the late Chairman Mao. (Nice job from Mulholland as Grandma.) 

The five performers were exuberant and likable, and each had a chance to strut their particular comedic stuff. If there was a standout among then, I’d say it was Johnston, who portrayed everything from a kiddo learning the sad, sordid truth about Santa to a J.D. Vance doppelganger. (Talk about affinity for a role…. Johnston’s Vance may be for Taxi Cab Comedy what Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin was for SNL.)

I hope that this team continues to refine their work. While I imagine there are sometimes stressful and disappointing moments behind the scenes, what struck me most was that these performers seemed to truly enjoy what they were doing. ~ (Taxi Cab Comedy Takes You Home for the Holidays! 12/12/25)

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Winter Rhythms 2025 played at Urban Stages Theater, 259 W. 30th St., NYC, Dec. 3–14.