Patti LuPone, Nellie McKay & More Set for 54 Below This Week

By: Apr. 13, 2015
Enter Your Email to Unlock This Article

Plus, get the best of BroadwayWorld delivered to your inbox, and unlimited access to our editorial content across the globe.




Existing user? Just click login.

Coming up this week, 54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz and beyond. To purchase tickets or for more information, visit www.54Below.com or call (646) 476-3551.

PATTI LUPONE, April 13 & 14 at 7PM:

"FOUR STARS. Patti LuPone has a miracle of a voice. It can be as big and bold as a brass band or as plaintive as a solitary woodwind. Here it is, in all its glory, in a collection of torch songs." - People Magazine. Patti LuPone's appearances at 54 Below have already achieved the status of legend. Experiencing the great diva in the intimate atmosphere of 54 Below is not only a never-to-be-forgotten experience but is one you will want to repeat again and again. This April, the two-time Tony Award winner returns to 54 Below with her critically-acclaimed show The Lady with A Torch. LuPone performs an eclectic collection of torch songs by such composers and lyricists as Arthur Schwartz, Howard Dietz, Jule Styne, Sammy Cahn, Billy Barnes, Harold Arlen, George and Ira Gershwin, and Cole Porter. Enjoy what Don Heckman of The Los Angeles Times described as "a beautifully paced, marvelously delivered torch-song exploration of the pleasures and pains of love; LuPone's remarkable, larger-than-life qualities and stunning musicality are distilled into the pure essence of her art." Conceived and Directed by Scott Wittman, Musical Direction by Joseph Thalken, Orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick and Dialogue by Jeffrey Richman. $95-105 cover charge. $150 premium seating. $30 food & beverage minimum.

NELLIE MCKAY, April 13, 15, 16, 17 & 18 at 9:30PM:

Nice Try, 60's - Nellie McKay revisits tunes from that fertile, conflicted time. "Nellie McKay is funny and touching, ceaselessly clever and scarily talented." -The New Yorker. Led by a trail of incense, Nellie revisits some of the melodies from the 1960s in her new show. Celebrating the release of her new album, My Weekly Reader, she will travel to a land of strange and wonderful musical delights with the grooved assistance of her magical band, The Cosmic X-Rays (Alexi David/bass, Cary Park/guitar, Kenneth Salters/drums)... A splendid time is guaranteed for all! Nellie McKay has previously released five full-length albums, including Normal as Blueberry Pie ("among the killer overhauls of American standards" - The New York Times). She has won a Theatre World Award for her portrayal of Polly Peachum in the Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera and performed onscreen in the films PS I Love You and Downtown Express, as well as writing original music for the Rob Reiner film Rumor Has It and the Emmy-winning documentary, Gasland. McKay wrapped an extended run in the award-winning off-Broadway hit Old Hats, and has written three acclaimed musical biographies, I Want to Live!, the story of Barbara Graham, the third woman executed in the gas chamber at San Quentin, Silent Spring: It's Not Nice to Fool Mother Nature, an exploration of environmental pioneer, Rachel Carson, and her latest, A Girl Named Bill - The Life and Times of Billy Tipton. David Byrne tells the Wall Street Journal, "Her last two 'cabaret' shows I saw have been jaw-dropping. They both completely subverted the genre,"... Among Ms. McKay's charms, Mr. Byrne said, are the ways she playfully mixes what he called a "tragic noir vibe" with her "wicked sense of humor." $55-70 cover charge. $100- 110 premium seating. $25 food & beverage minimum.

YANNA AVIS: MAKE SOME MAGIC, April 14 at 9:30PM:

"Ah Paree! Evoking '50s glamour through teasing taunts, statuesque French chanteuse Yanna Avis sings with a wry understanding... The show's essence is distilled in a word heard less and less nowadays: chic." - Stephen Holden, The New York Times. With her new showMake Some Magic Yanna Avis takes us on a romantic journey through the landscape of love in her own continental cabaret style. She says: "No matter where it is, no matter what the language is, the feeling is always the same! I believe in the power of a love-song, even when it is only a dream or...an illusion!" "This cosmopolitan femme fatale sings sultry torch songs with equal ease in French, German, Spanish and, of course English... Nobody else is carrying on the European tradition quite so well. Ms. Avis has a raw, unrefined talent, and an admirable resolve to make time stand still." - Rex Reed, New York Observer. $25-35 cover charge. $65 premium seating. $25 food & beverage minimum.

MARK NADLER, April 15 at 7PM:

"New York City may be crawling with contenders for the coveted imaginary title Mr. Show Business, but my vote would go to Mark Nadler, the hyperkinetic piano man and pop nostalgist who displays such voracious exuberance... he's an immensely talented latter-day Al Jolson." -Stephen Holden, The New York Times. $45-55 cover charge. $80 premium seating. $25 food & beverage minimum.

SETH SIKES IS STILL SINGING JUDY GARLAND, April 16 at 7PM:

Back by popular demand, Seth Sikes returns to 54 Below with more of Judy Garland's most celebrated songs - some of them in her key. Best known in the theater as an Assistant Director (on shows like The Nance, Tribes, and Pageant), Sikes gets on the stage with a seven-piece band to recount how Garland captivated him as a young boy in Paris, TX, and to sing her greatest hits. Surprise special guests may also appear. New songs added! The evening was co-conceived by Tony Winner Lisa Lambert and directed by Eric Gililland. Orchestrations are by Matt Aument, and the Music Director is Gary Adler. $30-40 cover charge. $70 premium seating. $25 food & beverage minimum.

JEN WALDMAN STUDIO: CLASSIC/ ROCK, April 16 at 11:30PM:

Classic rock songs. Rockin' classical songs. JWS presents Classic/ Rock, an evening of virtuosic arias and fierce rock songs featuring the students of Jen Waldman Studios. Featuring: Shanna Lesniak, Ariela Morganstern, Ann McCormack, Madge Dietrich, Scott Guthrie, Jesse Manocherian, Joanne Shea and Tony Ramos. $10 cover charge. $25 premium seating. $20 food & beverage minimum or two drinks.

MARILYN MAYE, April 17 at 7PM & April 18 at 2PM:

Back by overwhelming popular demand! Any evening with Marilyn Maye is a special event, but the particular magic of Her Way is its melding of two unique artists, one in spirit, the other in the flesh, into an evening in the theater that boasts not just one but two living legends. It doesn't get any better than this. Of course, Marilyn Maye is an artist for connoisseurs and her powerhouse delivery and chatty rapport with the audience is what holds the evening together and electrifies the proceedings. The aptly named production is an unabashed valentine to the late superstar, from the Super Singer that pays tribute to Sinatra's career with an immensely talented peer's interpretations of the songs that made Sinatra famous. It's a full-scale labor of love for another performer that is rarely seen from an artist of Maye's stature, and that is exactly what makes the show a must-see experience. $55-65 cover charge. $105-110 premium seating. $25 food & beverage minimum.

NADIA HARIKA: WATCH WHAT HAPPENS, April 17 at 11:30PM

Stop the presses! Singing actress Nadia Harika brings her cabaret debut to 54 Below with an evening of song and comedy mayhem. Recently seen in the Signature Theatre productions of Crossing and Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Nadia will unleash a whirlwind of songs spanning from country, rock and roll to-of course-musical theatre. Directed by Larry Owens, the finale features a family reunion that you will have to see to believe. Watch what happens!$10 cover charge. $25 premium seating. $20 food & beverage minimum or two drinks.

THE WEDDING SINGER REUNION CONCERT, April 19 at 7PM & 9:30PM

We're gonna party like it's 1985... again! Join original cast members of the 2006 Tony Award- nominated Best Musical The Wedding Singer for a once-in-a-lifetime reunion! From "It's Your Wedding Day" to "Let Me Come Home" to "Saturday Night In The City," enjoy one of your favorite contemporary Broadway scores live. Join us to celebrate scrunchies and parachute pants, jersey high bangs and acid washed jeans, to the music of Matt Sklar and Chad Beguelin...with a few songs that never made it to opening night! Featuring original cast members: Constantine Maroulis, Amy Spanger, Felicia Finley, Matt Saldivar, David Josefsberg, Kevin Kern, Eric L Summers, Rita Gardner, Tina Maddigan, Adinah Alexander, Spencer Liff, Ashley Amber Haase, Cara Cooper, Matt Allen, Nicolette Hart, Tracee Beazer, Matt Stocke, J. Elaine Marcos, Produced by T. Oliver Reid, Musical Direction by James Sampliner and Directed by Paul Stancato. $45-60 cover charge. $90 premium seating. $25 food & beverage minimum.

REEFER MADNESS REUNION CONCERT, April 19 at 11:30PM

Observe your 4/20 in style with the concert version of REEFER MADNESS celebrating the 10th anniversary of the hit Showtime movie! Featuring original cast members and special guest stars, this two-night-only event will "melt your resistance down like hot Velveeta." REEFER MADNESS tells the cautionary tale of Jimmy Harper, a "sweet-as-Shirley-Temple-dipped-in-pudding" American teenager, who is viciously dragged into a downward spiral of sex, debauchery, and jazz music by the deadly drug assassin known as Marijuana (pronounced "mare-a-hwua-na"). Join Jimmy, Mary Lane, Sally, Jesus Christ, and the Benjamin Harrison High School cast of Green Grow the Lilacs as we celebrate William Randoph Hearst and everything that is great in the U.S. of A! Think you can handle the high? Presented by the same team who brought you last year's star-studded, sold-out success at New World Stages. Reefer Madness features a book and score by Dan Studney and lyrics and book by Kevin Murphy. Starring original stage & movie cast members: Christian Campbell, John Kassir, Harry S. Murphy, Amy Spanger, Robert Torti and with Mary Testa (Queen of the Mist, Xanadu), Kristen Martin (Spiderman: Turn off the Dark),Andrew Aaron Berlin (A Christmas Story, the Musical), Saum Eskandani (Disaster!), Heather Parcells (Soul Doctor, A Chorus Line), Ryann Redmond (If/Then, Bring it On), Directed by Ilana Ransom Toeplitz, Consulting producer Christian Campbell and Produced by Shoshana Feinstein. $42 cover charge. $60 premium seating. $25 food & beverage minimum.



Videos