The Colony Hotel - Fall 2011 Season Of Royal Room Cabaret

(Baby Jane Dexter Is Pictured)

The Colony Hotel - Palm Beach Launches Fall 2011 Season of Royal Room Cabaret

Returning Favorites Include Baby Jane Dexter, Avery Sommers, Steve Ross, The Four Freshmen, Nicole Henry & Royal Room First-Timer Aaron Weinstein

The Colony Hotel launches its Fall Cabaret Season with several returning favorites and a Royal Room first-timer.

For all cabaret performances in The Colony's plush Royal Room, doors open at 6 p.m. for cocktails with dinner seating from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. There is no service during the cabaret performance that starts at 8:30 p.m.

November 4-5 & 11-12:
Baby Jane Dexter
Back by Popular Demand
Returning to the Royal Room for her sixth engagement since 2003, Baby Jane Dexter is a "triple crown winner" in cabaret, having received two Bistro awards from Back Stage, six top vocalist awards from the Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs (MAC) and both the 2009 and 2010 Nightlife Award for top cabaret singer. She will be celebrating the release of her new live CD, The Real World on Quannacut Records. Following a sold out run in New York City, The Real World is a powerful, inspiring and funny potpourri of unique songs and arrangements given Ms. Dexter's one of a kind haunting spin. The eclectic song list includes gems by the likes of Billie Holiday, Janis Ian, Roy Orbison, John Sebastian, Alec Wilder and many more. This new show promises potent musical moments along with the singer's trademark blend of profound and artistically whimsical bon mots. As always, Baby Jane challenges as much as she inspires. That is the hallmark that has sustained her remarkable career. The show's musical director is Ross Patterson.

Reviews of Baby Jane Dexter:
+ Stephen Holden, The New York Times: "The phrase 'keeping it real,' and all that it suggests certainly applies to Baby Jane Dexter, a longtime cabaret performer whose booming pop contralto is one of the more formidable voices on the New York nightclub stage."
+ The New York Post: "A full-throated belter one minute, a sensitive chanteuse the next; either way, Baby Jane Dexter is the real deal."
+ Jazz Times Magazine: "Dexter's brand of entertainment is arguably the most compellingly, refreshingly honest there is."
+ Theaterscene.net: To see (Baby Jane Dexter's) new show, The Real World, is to see what a legend is like in action."
+ The Colony's Roger Everingham: "I've seen Baby Jane Dexter's incredible ability to emotionally impact an audience, moving them to tears one minute and laughter the next."

The Cost to Attend Baby Jane Dexter:
Cover charge is $50.

November 18-19 & 25-26
Avery Sommers
Back by Popular Demand
Local favorite Avery Sommers is returning to The Colony Hotel for her fifth engagement since making her Royal Room debut in August 2008. She starred on Broadway in the long running, critically acclaimed musicals Ain't Misbehavin' (where she replaced Nell Carter) and Showboat, and in two national tours: Chicago with Joel Grey and Chita Rivera and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas with Ann-Margret. A frequent co-star of Burt Reynolds (B.L. Stryker, The Man from Left Field), she also starred in Menopause, the Musical and as Bloody Mary in South Pacific. In addition, she produced and co-starred in the film Hiding Victoria with Anita Gillette. At the Monaco International Film Festival last December, Sommers received the Best Supporting Actress Award at the Angel Film Awards.

Reviews of Avery Sommers:
+ The Palm Beach Post: "Big-voiced, large-framed Sommers threatens to overpower the intimate Royal Room, but for every booming showstopper, she knows how to counterbalance with an understated ballad... She may tend toward the blues in her song choices, but (her) buoyant, upbeat personality beams through.... Success in cabaret is at least as dependent on charisma as vocal ability and Sommers excels at both."
+ Boca Raton News: Avery Sommers is "hard to miss: an imposing and voluptuous African-American woman with mesmerizing green eyes and a raise-the-rafters voice... (She is) truly loved."

Cost to Attend Avery Sommers:
Cover charge is $50.

November 30-December 3
Steve Ross
Back by Popular Demand
Return to the Royal Room for the fourth time since 2005, Manhattan's most sophisticated cabaret singer Steve Ross has been lavishly praised by audiences and reviewers alike for his singing style and personal élan. He rose to fame as a cabaret entertainer during his lengthy sojourns at New York's fabled Algonquin Hotel and Ted Hook's Backstage in the late 1970's, and spent the ensuing decades singing and playing in smart clubs and swank parties all over the world. The Ritz in London, the Crillon in Paris and the Imperial Hotel Tokyo, in addition to festivals in Hong Kong, Perth and Spoleto - these are but highlights of Steve's appearances on six continents. On the airwaves Steve has been the performer/host for radio series for both the BBC and National Public Radio. In 1992 he was voted outstanding singer-instrumentalist by the Manhattan Association of Cabarets. Also in that year Steve made his Off-Broadway debut in his own tribute to Fred Astaire, and he continues to tour the world for solo concerts, master classes, theatrical engagements and symphonic Pops appearances.

Reviews of Steve Ross:
+ Stephen Holden, The New York Times: The persona of Steve Ross is "that of a sophisticated party entertainer who holds off the blues with a froth of wit. But there is an introspective side to Mr. Ross that has increasingly peeked out in his recent cabaret performances."
+ The Village Voice: "When Steve sings, New York is New York again."
+ Cabaret Scenes: "An Astaire-way to paradise. Your cabaret season is incomplete without this visit with Steve Ross."

Cost to Attend Steve Ross:
Cover charge is $50.

December 7-10
The Four Freshmen
Back by Popular Demand
It wouldn't be December in the Royal Room without the eighth annual visit from The Four Freshmen, the nation's longest lasting vocal harmony group who are celebrating more than a half-century of crowd-pleasing performances. From their first hit song, "It's a Blue World," to being voted Down Beat Magazine's Vocal Group of the Year in both 2000 and 2001, the group presents classic jazz-pop songs with cutting-edge vitality. The Four Freshmen have released more than 40 albums and 70 singles and been nominated six times for a Grammy.

Reviews of The Four Freshmen:
+ Charles Osgood, CBS Sunday Morning: "Some musical groups survive and even flourish, year after year, decade after decade. The Four Freshmen have endured for the simple reason that they are top in their class."
+ The Virginia-Pilot: "A more charming evening of jazz there never was."
+ Topeka Capital-Journal: "The sound of The Four Freshmen remains as fresh and vibrant as when the original quartet started singing more than 50 years ago."
+ Near Magazine: "The Four Freshmen have become known all over the world for their style of 'Freshmen Harmony'. They have been imitated through the years by many singing groups, but none can catch that special quality in the many songs made famous by them."

Cost to Attend The Four Freshmen:
Cover charge is $60.

December 14-17
Nicole Henry
Back by Popular Demand
Nicole Henry has toured thirteen countries and released three international Top 10-selling jazz CDs. Her latest, The Very Thought of You, reached #7 on the U.S. Billboard Jazz Chart. Nicole's first two CDs climbed to #2 and #1 in Japan, earning her "Best New Jazz Artist" and "Best Vocal Jazz Album" HMV Awards. Born in Philadelphia, Nicole resides in Miami and has been singing jazz since 2002, receiving praise from publications such as NY Times, Billboard, Jazz Times, Japan Times and Jazz Hot France. She has performed with the Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway Orchestras and tour highlights include Jazz at Juan les Pins on the French Riviera, Air Jamaica Jazz & Blues Festival, Nango & Tendo Jazz Festivals in Japan, and Lincoln Center and Feinstein's at Loews Regency in New York.

Reviews of Nicole Henry:
+ The New York Times: "She phrases with a freewheeling sense of play that never loses sight of the subject at hand... at the same time she holds back the force of her voice until that right moment to unleash its considerable force."
+ Billboard: An artist who knows how to make a song her own... she has a potent voice and her interpretive sense is sharp and distinctive."
+ Jazz Times: "She can sell a power ballad as well as Whitney, Diana and Patti."
+ Jazz Hot France: She has grace, presence, a superb and sumptuous voice... a style unseen these days."

Cost to Attend Nicole Henry:
Cover charge is $60.

December 20-24
Aaron Weinstein
** Royal Room Debut **
Named a "rising star violinist" by Downbeat Magazine, Aaron Weinstein is quickly earning a reputation as one of the finest jazz violinists of his generation. As a featured soloist, he has performed at Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Wolftrap Center for the Performing Arts, Birdland, Blue Note the Iridium, and abroad at jazz festivals in England, France, Switzerland, Iceland, and Israel. Mr. Weinstein performed and recorded with an array of jazz icons including: Les Paul, Bucky Pizzarelli, John Pizzarelli, Scott Hamilton, Dick Hyman, Dave Frishberg, Ken Peplowski, Houston Person, Jon Hendricks and Annie Ross. He has written arrangements for artists including Janis Siegel, Michael Feinstein, Billy Stritch, and Hilary Kole, is a New York Nightlife Award winner and recent graduate of the Berklee College of Music where he was awarded a full four-year talent-based scholarship.

Reviews of Aaron Weinstein:
+ Bucky Pizzarelli: "He is one in a million, this kid... a perfect musician. He is always coming up with something different just when you think you know everything he does,"
+ Tony Bennett: "The Groucho of the violin."
+ Jim Caruso: "He knows how to entertain! He knows from Jack Benny, he knows from Woody Allen. He's a little bit vaudeville and a touch Borscht Belt..."
+ Stephen Holden, The New York Times: "A sensation talent in the tradition of Stéphanie Grappelli and Joe Venuti. Mr. Weinstein is an inventive melodic improviser who doesn't go in for flashy gymnastic flourishes. He turned ‘Just One of Those Things' into a mini-marathon of swinging endurance, at the end of which you were left a little breathless."

Cost to Attend Aaron Weinstein:
Cover charge is $60.

To make reservations, call the hotel box-office at 561.659.8100. The Colony is located at 155 Hammon Avenue in Palm Beach, just one block south of Worth Avenue, one block west of the Atlantic Ocean.

Please note that all performers and booking dates are subject to change.

Host to Presidents Bush and Clinton, the Windsor's and other royalty, The Colony has been the center of Palm Beach society for more than 60 years, An intimate, friendly boutique hotel with British Colonial flair, it is just steps away from shopping on world famous Worth Avenue, and about 100 yards from a beautiful Atlantic Ocean beach. This landmark hotel recently completed an extensive $15-million renovation and offers guests the choice of charming hotel rooms, luxurious suites, spectacular penthouses and spacious two bedroom villas - plus beautiful grounds and Frette linens.

The Colony's popular restaurants include:
+ Polo Steaks and Seafood, which is now Palm Beach's number one steakhouse, offering dining al fresco in the hotel's beautiful Palm Court by the pool.
+ Royal Room, which is widely considered to be one of the nation's premier cabarets.
+ Café 155, which is a petit New York-style deli serving delicious breakfasts and lunches prepared in the hotel's award-winning kitchen.

Over the last several years The Colony Hotel has won numerous prestigious awards, including:
+ The Providencia Award from the Palm Beach County Convention & Visitors Bureau. South Florida's most impressive annual honor recognizing excellence within the local hospitality and tourism industry, this was the first time in the 21-year history of the Award that it had gone to a smaller, boutique hotel (2009)
+ The Quintessentially Palm Beach Award from the Palm Beach Chamber of Commerce as part of the town's Centennial Celebration (2011)
+ The Bernays Award for Best Branding Campaign from the Gold Coast PR Council for the 10th anniversary of the Royal Room Supper Club (2011).

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