CABARET THEATER REVIEWS

TWAS THE HAPPIEST HOUR BEFORE PRIDE, a mix of comedy stand-up, ballads, and spoken word poetry, took the stage at The Duplex on June 24 to celebrate NYC Pride and fundraise for a good cause....

The world fell in love with Ella Fitzgerald in her six-decade career. Michael Feinstein conjured this unending love for Fitzgerald at The Appel Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center in his final JAZZ & POPULAR SONG concert of the 2017 season with ELLA ON MY MIND....

Brian Stokes Mitchell is a man of many talents. He's a stage and film veteran with the most glorious baritone voice. The gifted actor took the stage at Feinstein's/54 Below on his own for the first time this month with a concert of songs, mainly from his forthcoming album PLAYING WITH MUSIC....

The New York cabaret scene has found itself a new star, whether or not anyone was asking for it. Broadway album designer and social media demagog Robbie Rozelle, who has previously created solo shows for Melissa Errico and Kate Baldwin, decided it was finally Robbie's Turn and brought us SONGS FR...

In Melissa Errico's latest show, MELISSA ERRICO SINGS SONDHEIM, at the famed Feinstein's/54 Below, she may have performed some of the composer's must oversung showstoppers, but it felt as though the audience was hearing them for the first time....

What do you get when you cross Mad Libs with Clue, add a group of theatre vets, and sprinkle in a dash of philanthropy? Why, it must be VILLAIN: DEBLANKS! The comedy event, held at Feinstein's/54 Below, served as a benefit for the ACLU, with Billy Mitchell, who wrote the skeleton script for the s...

It's often been pointed out that love and hate aren't exactly polar opposites, considering each feeling originates from a place of passion. And now more than ever, we've come to a point where, everyday, living can feel like an extreme sport and everything seems to be superlative, for best or worst. ...

If you're not already familiar with Antonia Bennett, her current Cafe Carlyle run and venue debut are quite the introduction. As the daughter of a famous father, Bennett grew up surrounded by quality music and performers, and it was at an early age that she began adding her own voice to the mix. For...

From just about the moment Alexis Michelle walked into the workroom, the RUPAUL'S DRAG RACE contestant was clocked as a Broadway queen. While performing at Feinstein's/54 Below in IT TAKES A WOMAN with her rich, husky singing voice, that proved to be a well-earned title. But, as seen on TV, comed...

“Shouldn't I be somewhere at 8:00?” That is a fair reaction for the Chita Rivera to have to once seeing boards and bus ads for CHIGAGO, BYE BYE BIRDIE, and WEST SIDE STORY a few years back while they were all simultaneously running, a story she regaled the audience with in the intro to her WE...

A cyclone of camp with a true gift for one-liners and an even stronger voice, Courtney Act followed the yellow brick road past the crowd to hit the stage in THE GIRL FROM OZ. Despite several homages to THE WIZARD OF OZ, the May 4 show at the Laurie Beechman Theatre was centered on that other, no ...

"This is the first time I've ever seen Shaina Taub in anything other than in a play." This comment, made shortly before Taub (primarily known for her work in the theatre, including TWELFTH NIGHT, AS YOU LIKE IT, and OLD HATS) took the stage to perform original songs, distilled exactly what was so...

If showstoppers are the sugary-sweet dessert of any Broadway show, you might think eating nothing but cake would leave you sick to your stomach. But in the case of THE GREAT BROADWAY BELT SHOW! at Feinstein's/54 Below, you'd be wrong. At the April 25 show, dessert for dinner never looked so good....

Alice Sommer Herz, the world's oldest living Holocaust survivor and a prolific concert pianist, once said, 'Music saved my life, and Music saves me still.' On Yom Hashoah, a day devoted to honoring the lives lost in the Holocaust, a group of artists visited Pangea to pay tribute to souls saved throu...

SING HAPPY!, a delightful cabaret showcase of Ann LeSchander's vocal chops and comic talents backed by wonderful musicians who know when to take focus and when to lay back. Kudos to The Gardenia's sound system that allows each instrument to be heard so distinctly as individual instruments, then blen...

At the most recent BROADWAY BY THE YEAR presentation on March 27, at its usual home of the Town Hall, the 1940s was the sent-up decade from which the evening's performers sang. At a time in the country that currently bears striking and cryptic similarity to that grim period of global history, the re...

With a regal violet gown covered in jewels for days and a mile-high bouffant that would leave Priscilla Presley gagging, Latrice Royale ambled up to the stage of the Laurie Beechman Theatre. When her hair, teased to the gods, soon brushed against the ceiling, she said, with a cackle, "My hair's too ...

In her new show, RED, WHITE AND INDIGO, Lady Rizo is all about coming to terms with that "very bad boyfriend" she calls America. "I think he reads my email," she joked with a wry smile, during her first show of a three-night run at Joe's Pub on March 23. "And I know he's f**king with my birth con...

'That's really niche.' Those words from one of the night's emcees, Feinstein's/54 Below Programming Director Jennifer Ashley Tepper, were technically used in reference to Linda Lavin's propensity to play love interests for superheroes. But, really, they could've been used to describe BROADWAY BOU...

Suzanne Vega is not a firecracker; she's a sparkler. In the first night of her run at Cafe Carlyle on March 15---since the previous day's show was nixed due to a rude winter storm named Stella---Vega was dazzling, but in the smallest, most personal way possible. Getting up onstage, she spoke with...

Though all of Harvey Granat's midday events are illuminating and entertaining, his most recent SONGS AND STORIES on March 16 at 92Y could've easily continued at least another half hour buoyed by audience enthusiasm. The event's special guests, author/producer/journalist Will Friedwald (who has his o...

BROADWAY BY THE YEAR, the musical revue series created, written, directed, and hosted by Scott Siegel and which pays tribute to a different era of Broadway composers each program, is a stroke of brilliance. Occurring once a month, each evening is dedicated specifically to one decade of American musi...

Like the Criminologist in ROCKY HORROR, Erin Markey is here to take you on a strange journey. Well, technically, said journey has been going on since 2013. And, after years of working on her original musical, A RIDE ON THE IRISH CREAM, this was more of a victory lap for Markey, in the form of an ...

One generally associates megaphones as the staple of high school gym teachers, used to amplify their punitive requests of portly students to run faster. Naturally, Carmen Cusack, the once-unsung supernova who made her craterous impact on Broadway in last season's BRIGHT STAR, subverted preconceived ...

'Too soon' is a phrase you often hear in regards to a celebrity passing away. It usually refers to making some sort of joke or cruel remark about them, devoid of the inherent understanding that, in death, celebrities are deserving of unwavering respect, even if that respect eluded them in life. B...