Tom Hubbard News

The Broadway at Birdland concert series was proud to present singer Nicolas King in concert on Sunday, June 14. Nicolas performed 'Shakin' the Blues Away!' - a collection of 'feel good' songs from the worlds of Jazz, Pop and Broadway. The show was under the baton of musical director Mike Renzi and his trio, Ray Marchica on drums and Tom Hubbard on bass. BroadwayWorld has photos from the concert below!

Linda Lavin's most recent show at 54 Below (which had a three-night run between June 4-6), Starting Over--"Because that's what I've done all my life"--illuminates a succession of chapters in her career. The show bears more than a little resemblance to a 2012 appearance at the same venue. There are repeated numbers, excessive, though entertaining anecdotes, and a feel I now find formulaic.

It takes a woman of considerable wit, style, and maturity to tackle (let alone celebrate) the subject matter of men. In her new show, Celebrating Men (Bless Their Hearts), seen last Thursday night at the Metropolitan Room, happily, Charlotte Patton possesses all those traits as she leads us on her guided tour of all the various male idiosyncrasies that can drive a woman wild--or mad.

Charlotte Patton has been married and not. She's had serious relationships, flings, and romances with men of all ages (but mostly younger). She's experienced all the charms, foibles, and idiosyncrasies of the opposite sex--and loves them anyway. Now the actress and comedian will bring all of that worldly wisdom to her sensual, provocative, and playful new cabaret show . . . 'Celebrating Men (Bless Their Hearts),' opening at New York's Metropolitan Room (34 West 22nd Street) tonight, May 28 at 9:30 pm. Patton's show is Directed by Award-winning cabaret performer Karen Oberlin with Musical Direction by MAC Award winner Barry Levitt. Recent MAC Award winner Tom Hubbard is on bass. Peter Napolitano contributes as Creative Consultant.

Stars of New York's Cabaret and theatre worlds will perform the songs of renowned composer/arranger Larry Kerchner in the fourth edition of 'Hidden Treasures: Songs of Larry Kerchner.'

One might easily call Susan Winter's Monday night show at Don't Tell Mama, A Woman for All Seasons: Part Two as half its numbers were in the first show by this name she performed during a run starting last September at the Metropolitan Room. Winter is the kind of class act that would've been lauded in nightclubs way back when, as she's a steward of the American Songbook at its most genuine but with a side of jazz influence.

STING*chronicity starring Rosemary Loar at Metropolitan Room 34 W. 22nd Street tonight, May 20th at 7pm. 

On Sunday, May 17, the Broadway at Birdland concert series was proud to present the award-winning cabaret performer Jamie deRoy, along with Broadway stars Lena Hall (Hedwig and the Angry Inch), Cady Huffman (The Producers), Judy Kaye (The Phantom of the Opera and Nice Work If You Can Get It), Pamela Myers (original cast member of the six time Tony-winning Company and Tony nominee for Snoopy), Kevin Meaney (Hairspray) and Hugh Panaro (Phantom of the Opera) on her Multi MAC award-winning Variety Show, Jamie deRoy & friends. Scroll down for photos!

Jamie deRoy came to Jim Caruso's Broadway at Birdland last night and Broadwayworld was there. In the world of show business everyone is always everyones friend. After 25 years of having enormously talented friends perform on her stages and loyal friends fill the seats at her shows, the consistency of participation points to the fact that most are real friends. Jamie's friends stick together. The hugs are real, the laughter is genuine, and the happy feeling everyone has after an episode of Jamie deRoy & friends always seems to linger in the air for many days after the show is over.  Such was the case of her latest entry in the series which always at this time of year features everything "TONY".

Author/critic Scott Siegel created BROADWAY BY THE YEAR for Town Hall, which he writes and hosts. Siegel takes audiences of all ages on a musical tour of the Great White Way, offering an entertaining verbal account of Broadway's history. Each evening celebrates the songs from Broadway shows of a selected year, sung by a cast of talented cabaret and Broadway performers. This marvelous program not only highlights favorite show-stopping numbers, it also features lesser-known gems.

Marilyn Maye took the 54 Below stage with her solo Frank Sinatra tribute, HER WAY, on April 23 & 25 at 7PM & April 24 at 8:30PM. Check out photos of the event below!

STING*chronicity starring Rosemary Loar at Metropolitan Room 34 W. 22nd Street Wednesday, May 20th at 7pm. 

Charlotte Patton has been married and not. She's had serious relationships, flings, and romances with men of all ages (but mostly younger). She's experienced all the charms, foibles, and idiosyncrasies of the opposite sex--and loves them anyway. Now the actress and comedian will bring all of that worldly wisdom to her sensual, provocative, and playful new cabaret show . . . 'Celebrating Men (Bless Their Hearts),' opening at New York's Metropolitan Room (34 West 22nd Street) on May 28 at 9:30 pm. Patton's show is Directed by Award-winning cabaret performer Karen Oberlin with Musical Direction by MAC Award winner Barry Levitt. Recent MAC Award winner Tom Hubbard is on bass. Peter Napolitano contributes as Creative Consultant.

Scott Siegel's Town Hall series explores the changes a quarter century can make.

From the Oscars to the Tonys, the Grammys to Emmys, awards ceremonies are always a hit-or-miss situation. Either the event is absolutely excellent or ends with spectators saying, 'Well, they'll do a better job with it next year.' The 2015 MAC Awards, presented by the Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs, and held once again this year at BB King's on West 42nd Street, absolutely fell into the former category. It was a splendid affair (albeit it's usual 3-plus hours) that was expertly directed by MAC President Lennie Watts.

Just when one thinks Carole J. Bufford has thoroughly plumbed the genre for which she has so much affinity, the artist comes up with an audacious new show whose distinct focus, original format, and unblushing presentation delivers a fresh take. Heart of Gold: A Portrait of the Oldest Profession (this past Saturday night at 54 Below) offers a cavalcade of women who get paid to provide 'pleasure'--madams, streetwalkers, dancehall girls, and kept women from salty to sensuous, weary and bitter to a view from the catbird seat, enmeshed or looking back.

When Kathryn Allyn, an opera singer now turned Great American Songbook chanteuse, took the stage at The Cutting Room last Tuesday night, she was all va-va-voom in a curve-hugging Valentine red dress. She joined her crackerjack band-musical director Frank Ponzio, bassist Tom Hubbard, and drummer Vito Leszack-to perform homage to her favorite jazz and big band singer Anita O'Day, whose heyday came between the World War II era through the early 1960s.

The Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs will present the 29th Annual MAC Awards on Thursday, March 26st, at 7:30pm, at B.B King Blues Club & Grill in New York City.

When Mark Nadler, singing the iconic Irving Berlin song and Al Jolson standard 'Let Me Sing and I'm Happy,' strolls from the back of 54 Below to his rightful place center stage (accompanied by Nick Russo on banjo), he seems, in all respects, a jaunty, debonair thespian. The song is light, unembellished, infectious. What you're watching in truth is a state of the art ballistic missile unerringly headed for its target. 'My name is Mark and I'm a spotlightaholic.' Tonight Nadler celebrates two 'out of control' spotlightaholics--Danny Kaye and Al Jolson--both of whom put themselves (and kept themselves) in front of audiences every available moment. (The artist designates himself as a 'functional' sufferer of the compulsion.) Memorable anecdotes enlighten and entertain. 'In the spirit of Kaye and Jolson, however, this show is all about ME.' Four decades in, Nadler calls show business his religion. Judging by ensuing narrative, his zealous devotion is, in context, worthy of sainthood.

'I was at the Police Reunion Concert at Madison Square Garden in 2008 and the energy was through the roof,' says vocalist/actress/writer Rosemary Loar at the start of her new show, STING-chronicity, at the Metropolitan Room. 'We were 18,000 strong, each of us challenging ownership of this man's music.' Loar feels special rapport with the oeuvre of Sting (Gordon Sumner, who was Police's lead singer and principal songwriter from 1977-1986, before he launched an incredibly successful solo career) as represented by her earlier show and CD, the celebratory Sting, Stang, Stung (see video of the 2010 show, below). 'We're onto the same zeitgeist,' Loar recently revealed in an interview. 'We're both Catholics and some of his writing is about obsession, guilt and penance.'