Stephen Hanks - Page 6

When Barb Jungr takes the stage tonight for her debut at 54 Below (she also be at the club tomorrow night and Sunday night; all shows at 7pm), the acclaimed British chanteuse will have conquered another major New York nightclub venue, having in past years performed critically acclaimed shows at the Café Carlyle, Joe's Pub, the Metropolitan Room. She even knocked them dead at the 59E59 theater twice in less than a year, with her show Dancing the Dark (read my review here) in December 2013 and Hard Rain (review here) this past November. While Jungr is still performing the latter--amazing interpretations of some of the most intensely political Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen songs—throughout Europe and has earned enormous praise for the CD of the same name, her 54 Below show, Mad About the Boy and No Regrets, will be an amalgam of Jungr's greatest hits from past shows and CD, plus some songs she'll be doing for the first time.

In my recent very extended assessment of cabaret shows I never reviewed during the second half of 2014, there were two significant omissions. I didn't leave these out of my critical mix because they weren't strikingly significant. In fact, it was just the opposite. The new variety game show, Tune In Time, which dubs itself the “Musical Theater Olympics,” and the musical theater piece/song cycle, New World Waking, were among the most original and entertaining productions I witnessed this year and deserved more of a feature treatment than a quickie review. My take on Tune In Time (which will begin a new monthly run at the York Theatre on January 5) should beat the clock before the next show. So by simple process of elimination, this commentary will be on New World Waking, which when performed on December 6 was one of the highlights of the recent annual 12-day, 20-show Winter Rhythms Festival at Urban Stages.

If you've been a regular reader of this particular reviewer's musings, you know that every year there are long stretches of time where I just haven't been able to critique all the shows I've seen that deserve commentary. So I end up playing what they call in sports, 'Catch-up ball,' and post a mash up of belated reviews from past shows. It's kind of like a critic's version of the song 'Six Months Out of Every Year,' from Damn Yankees. Give or take a month or two, that's usually the time period during which I store unpublished reviews in my fevered brain and then unload them all in one seemingly endless column-like this one is going to be. If my cabaret-show reviewing days will be over (as chronicled here), I might as well go out with a bang-and relieve my procrastination guilt during holiday season. Now I can scratch one New Year's resolution off the list.

With the end of the voting period for the 2014 BroadwayWorld New York Cabaret Awards just eight days away (voting will close at Noon on December 31, 2014), BroadwayWorld.com is pleased to announce that the 3rd Annual BWW NY Cabaret Awards Show will take place for the second successive year at Joe's Pub (The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, NYC) at 6:30 pm. Once again, this Award presenting extravaganza will feature performances by the Award winners (whose schedules make them available), and BWW's New York Cabaret Editor Stephen Hanks will once again host the festivities.

Elton John. Carole King. Joni Mitchell. Carly Simon. Paul Simon. Stevie Wonder. They were six superstar singer/songwriters in a constellation of such stars during the early 1970s, who could be considered the composers of the 'New Great American Songbook. Tonight, December 13 at 7 pm, as part of its annual 12-day 'Winter Rhythms' Festival, Urban Stages will present a star-studded variety show celebrating these great talents of the Golden Age of the Pop Singer/Songwriter.

After four years reviewing cabaret shows, more than two for BroadwayWorld, our lead New York cabaret critic Stephen Hanks will be giving up reviewing shows to be the BWW Cabaret section's Editor and lead feature writer. Here's how he became a cabaret reviewer, why he's giving it up, and who he's brought on board to make up BWW's new cabaret reviewing team.

Elton John. Carole King. Joni Mitchell. Carly Simon. Paul Simon. Stevie Wonder. They were six superstar singer/songwriters in a constellation of such stars during the early 1970s, who could be considered the composers of the 'New Great American Songbook. On Saturday, December 13 at 7 pm, as part of its annual 12-day 'Winter Rhythms' Festival, Urban Stages will present a star-studded variety show celebrating these great talents of the Golden Age of the Pop Singer/Songwriter.

t may not be like getting a gift on each of the 12 Days of Christmas, but for cabaret and musical theater lovers, the 6th Annual Urban Stages Winter Rhythms series--presented over a dozen nights at the not-for-profit Off-Broadway theatre on 259 West 30th Street--could be the closest thing to opening a daily present by the tree. From December 2-14 (no shows on Dec. 9), more than 100 singers, musicians, and songwriters will perform in an eclectic mix of 20 shows including one-night-only group shows, excerpts from new musicals, solo shows, open mics, late night spotlights, and family matinees, with all the proceeds from ticket sales dedicated to the Urban Stages On Tour Outreach Program that brings more than 200 free multicultural theater and music programs to elementary and middle school age children and their families in libraries and schools throughout NYC five boroughs.

The day is finally here! After one month of voting on preliminary nominees in 17 categories, the results of more than 5,000 ballots were considered along with the selections of BroadwayWorld's cabaret section editors to determine the final nominees for the 2014 BroadwayWorld.com New York Cabaret Awards. Joining cabaret icon Marilyn Maye with four nominations is budding star Carole J. Bufford, who made the final ballot for two different shows during 2014 and as 'Best Female Vocalist' and 'Performer of the Year.' Among Maye's nominations were 'Performer of the Year,' two shows in the 'Best Celebrity Show' category, and a 'Best Director' nomination for her work with jazz singer Gabrielle Stravelli (who received two nominations). In addition to her usual nod for 'Best Jazz Vocalist,' jazz star Jane Monheit received two other nominations as 'Performer of the Year,' and as 'Best Host' for her new variety show at Birdland, Jane Monheit's Jazz Party (Monheit also co-starred with Clint Holmes in another nominated show, Frank Wildhorn and Friends in the 'Best Revue' category.) Eric Michael Gillett also earned three nominations for 'Best Show, Male,' 'Best Male Vocalist,' and 'Best Director.'

The New York cabaret community had something really special to be thankful for yesterday as one of its own, singer William Blake, was a featured performer in the 2014 MACY's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Cruising up to the parade's main staging area on a faux Mississippi River Boat at around the show's midpoint, Blake and three backup singers revved up the crowd with a uptempo gospel/blues song 'Give Thanks,' written by Matt Sklar and Bill Schermerhorn, with an arrangement by Blake's Musical Director Michael Thomas Murray (see video). For the 31-year-old Texas native, who came to New York just seven years ago, performing in the parade is now one of the high points of his career.

Jazz singer, nightclub entertainer, and actress Cynthia Crane, has been known for decades by New York cabaret and jazz audiences as the 'saloon chanteuse' for her husky-voiced jazz vocals and impertinent stories at clubs such as the Metropolitan Room, Don't Tell Mama, Tavern on the Green, Eighty-Eights, and Panache. Now Crane's enchanting vocal performances are being featured on a Pandora Radio station called 'Cynthia Crane Radio: The Chanteuse Has Arrived!'

Who says Americans don't vote in mid-term elections? They certainly vote when it comes to the Preliminary Ballot for 2014 BroadwayWorld New York Cabaret Awards. During the three weeks of voting which began on Tuesday, November 4 (ironically, Election Day), there were more than 5,300 votes cast in 17 categories. The polls close at noon on November 30, 2014.

It's time to cast your votes to determine the final nominees for the 2014 BroadwayWorld.com New York Cabaret Awards.For the third successive year, BWW wants YOU to determine the best and the brightest in the world of New York cabaret (based on performances between November 1, 2013-October 31, 2014). But this time we're going to arrive at the nominees for the final ballot (to be posted first week of December with voting until January 3) with your help.

Any visit by celebrated chanteuse Barb Jungr to a New York cabaret stage or theatre is a cause for jubilation. Slightly less than a year since she rocked 59E59 with her week long run of Dancing In the Dark, Jungr was back on that stage with a new show based on her recently released, highly-acclaimed CD, Hard Rain: The Songs of Bob Dylan & Leonard Cohen. But where Dancing In the Dark was Jungr's introspective take on some classic pop songs (including some Dylan and Cohen), her Hard Rain set is truly dark and Jungr doesn't apologize for that. In fact, often during this collection of songs written by two of pop music's foremost dark poets of the soul (with stirring arrangements by Jungr and her CD Producer Simon Wallace), Jungr readily admits the set is depressing because her intent was to focus on Dylan and Cohen songs that were at once powerful, personal, political, philosophical, and often prophetic.

Rita Wilson and Molly Ringwald deserve a lot of credit for being gutsy enough to go out of their comfort zones as performers and venture into the intimate, sometimes scary art from known as cabaret, where you're always live and can't rely on extra takes. It's also obvious that they've worked very hard at becoming the best vocalists they can possibly be. They have just as much right to live out their cabaret performing fantasies as, oh, about 75 percent of the 'singers' booking shows in cabaret room all over the New York. If Wilson and Ringwald weren't bold-faced names would their singing really be considered good enough to merit them gigs (and extended ones at that) at the Cafe Carlyle? And if they weren't celebrities, would they be receiving such breathlessly positive reviews from critics, some of who should know better?

Having written extensively about skyrocketing-to-stardom singer Carole J. Bufford over the past three years (a January/February cover story for Cabaret Scenes Magazine, and rave reviews of her past three major show runs (here, here, and here), I felt as if I had exhausted my entire repertoire of descriptive metaphors and superlatives in assessing her stirring cabaret performances. Even though she's still but a babe in cabaret years, and has a long, successful career ahead of her, I wasn't planning to review any more of her shows because, well, there didn't seem to be anything more to say. But, dammit, every time I try to get out, Carole J. Bufford pulls me back in.

New York cabaret audiences have for years been blessed with extremely entertaining performing marrieds like John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molasky, Eric Comstock and Barbara Fasano, and Michael Garin and Mardie Millett. But after experiencing the thoroughly enchanting October 8 performance from Amanda McBroom and her husband George Ball at 54 Below (there was a second performance on October 14), it's difficult to imagine a cabaret couple more compelling. In short, the Balls were having a ball and, ultimately, so did their audience.

Every year, there are a couple of young performers who seem to skyrocket up the cabaret charts and one of this season's emerging stars is Maxine Linehan. She came to the States from Ireland just a dozen years ago, performed her debut cabaret show in 2006, and then three years later staged a Petula Clark tribute. In the five years since, Linehan acted in Off-Broadway plays and appeared in the national tour of South Pacific, but has spent much of this period raising 4-year-old Rebecca and 21-month old Gabriel with songwriter/musician husband Andrew Koss. But with the help of nightlife impresario Scott Siegel, Linehan is definitely making up for lost time on the cabaret front. This spring, she staged performances of her autobiographical show An American Journey at Terminus Recording Studios for a recent CD release. Now, less than five months later, Linehan is in mid-run of a new show, Beautiful Songs, at the Metropolitan Room.

With a unique vocal sound she calls, 'Contemporary Blues,' Billie Williams has been conquering the nightclub and cabaret rooms of New York City-from the Metropolitan Room and Iridium Jazz Club, to Joe's Pub- and now The Cutting Room tonight, September 13 at 9:30 pm.

With a unique vocal sound she calls, 'Contemporary Blues,' Billie Williams has been conquering the nightclub and cabaret rooms of New York City-from the Metropolitan Room and Iridium Jazz Club, to Joe's Pub- and now The Cutting Room on September 13 at 9:30 pm.