Review: The Dutch Treat Club Holiday Spectacular

It’s the time of year for great holiday shows and the Rockefeller Center area was the place to be for one yesterday on December 16th. No, it wasn’t at Radio City with the Rockettes…it was the Dutch Treat Club’s spectacular array of talented performers who sang and danced for an overflow audience of club members and their guests at the end of year special holiday lunch. The club is located on 51st Street, a few steps from Radio City Music Hall.

It was “The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year” as host of the afternoon, Raissa Katona Bennett sang to us in a stunning arrangement of that song paired with “The Christmas Waltz” and it ended on a high note in more ways than one as she opened the show. Musical Director of the day, Mark Janas, introduced Raissa, reminding us all that not only is she the Entertainment Chair of Dutch Treat, but she has had a Broadway career in shows such as Phantom of the Opera, the First National Tours of Cats and Parade, as well as being an award-winning concert and cabaret performer headlining at places including Feinstein’s, The Iridium, Metropolitan Room and Symphonies throughout the East Coast. Talk about getting a great gift for Christmas; Raissa’s voice thrilled and had our guest Donna McKechnie asking, “where can we see her on Broadway”?

Raissa then brought up welcoming committee chair and Board Member Robin Westle, herself an accomplished cabaret performer, to lead us in the lighting of the menorah in a brief but moving ceremony where many of the crowd joined in singing the prayer.

Next up was Eric Yves Garcia, one of NYC’s favorite multiple award-winning singer/pianists who has graced the stages of 54 Below, Carnegie Hall and the Café Carlyle, just to name a few, as well as long-term residencies at Chez Josephine and the Pierre Hotel’s Two E Lounge. He charmed us with three songs, “She Was Beautiful”, “All the Way” and “That Face”, before which he told us the story of how Alan Bergman wrote the tune in order to charm his future wife, Marilyn Bergman, proposing to her right after he performed it for the first time!

Eight-time MAC Award and two-time Bistro Award winner Mark Janas, renowned for being the Musical Director for the world’s largest production of Hello, Dolly! where he created all-new arrangements for its star, Marilyn Maye and as associate conductor for the national tours of Les Misérables, then took the spotlight with a virtuosic rendition of “Sleigh Ride” engaging us all to crack the whip at the appropriate time. (You could tell the audience was made up of artists because we did it right on the third beat each time!) He played brilliantly, proving why he was the protégé of Leonard Bernstein! 

Current Dutch Treat President KT Sullivan held us in rapt attention as she played for herself and sang Sheldon Harnick's “Someone’s Been Sending Me Flowers” which held many fun surprise turns! A busy lady, she is also artistic director of The Mabel Mercer Foundation and has starred on Broadway in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and at Irish Rep in “Love, Noël” with Steve Ross. For over two decades she headlined in the Oak Room of the Algonquin, and now performs regularly in NYC at Birdland, Don’t Tell Mama, Pangea, and at Crazy Coqs in London. Her show “Rhyme, Women, and Song” was filmed for PBS, as well as her Sondheim Show with Jeff Harnar.

We had an extra special treat this year, because the song and dance, husband and wife and Broadway duo team of Nicolas Dromard and Desiree Davar, known as Nic and Desi, who not only sang brilliantly, but also DANCED! And TAP DANCED!  Broadway star and triple threat Donna McKechnie, who was in attendance, was delighted by this song and dance team, as was the entire audience - she remarked that you really don’t get to see this art form much anymore, and Nic and Desi really hit it out of the park! They gave us songs from shows they met in such as “Happy Holidays” from White Christmas, or performed on Broadway, like “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” from Jersey Boys, as well as fabulous renditions of “The Best Things Happen While You’re Dancing/Blue Skies”; completely superb singing and dancing with a direct and personal style that touched us all.  

The always lovely cabaret star, Corinna Sowers-Adler, who has headlined at Feinstein’s, Green Room 42, 54 Below and the Appel Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center, to name a few, gave us a heartfelt “It’s My Joy” in her warm and sparkling soprano, as her husband and Dutch Treat Board Member, Nick Adler, looked on proudly.  This husband and wife are also a formidable producing team with the Mac Award nominated “Music at the Mansion” and “Cabaret on the Hudson,” “NiCori Presents,” and the “New Jersey Cabaret Festival.”

Nic and Desi, who also starred on Broadway in shows such as Wicked, Mary Poppins and West Side Story, returned to close out the show with fabulous song and dance renditions of “Winter Wonderland”, “The Christmas Song” and “Putting on the Ritz”.

The entire cast returned to the “stage” and led us all in the traditional sing-a-long of “White Christmas”, “Let It Snow” and “Auld Lang Syne”, as we toasted each other and the close of 2025, as Dutch Treat goes on hiatus until February 3rd, 2026.  

Learn more about the Dutch Treat Club online at www.dutchtreatny.org

Raissa Katona Bennett

Raissa Katona Bennett

Dutch Treat Club

Nic n' Desi

Nic n' Desi

Nic n' Desi

Nic n' Desi

Nic n' Desi

Eric Yves Garcia

Eric Yves Garcia

KT Sullivan

Mark Janas

Corinna Sowers Adler

Eric Yves Garcia, Corinna Sowers Adler, Raissa Katona Bennett, KT Sullivan, Desiree Dava, Nicolas Dromard, Mark Janas

Raissa Katona Bennett, Donna McKechnie, KT Sullivan, Eda Sorokoff

Stephen Sorokoff, Donna McKechnie, Raissa Katona Bennett, Desiree Dava, Nicolas Dromard, Corinna Sowers Adler, Eric Yves Garcia

Corinna Sowers Adler, Robin Westle, Raissa Katona Bennett, Nic, KT Sullivan, Desi

Dutch Treat Club

Nancy McGraw & KT Sullivan

Donna McKechnie & Eda Sorokoff

Nic n' Desi

Corinna Sowers Adler & Nicholas Adler

Shana Farr & Jeffrey Hardy

Nancy McGraw, KT Sullivan, Raissa Katona Bennett, Randi Levine-Miller

Raissa Katona Bennett

Donna McKechnie, Raissa Katona Bennett, Desi, Nic

Raissa Katona Bennett

Rockefeller Center