CABARET THEATER REVIEWS

Cafe Carlyle is a low-ceilinged room with walls covered in paintings that lend credence to the illusion of being locked in another world, a jazzy rendition of 80 years ago that's all glitz and glam. It is in this room that Ana Gasteyer performed, making her debut at the venue. There was an immedi...

On Friday December 9 and Saturday December 10 Chris Isaacson Presents brought us the incomparable R&B recording artist Melba Moore with her CD release party for 'Forever Moore' at Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood. Moore is no stranger to Broadway audiences who remember her Tony-winning portrayal ...

A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS WITH MEGAN HILTY was one of my favorite cabaret/concert experiences this year. It's always a treat to hear her sing. She's in her own class as a vocalist and I look forward to what she does next....

Raconteur/vocalist/historian/producer Harvey Granat's entertaining series SONGS AND STORIES at 92Y ended for the season Thursday with ON BURT BACHARACH (with Special Guest, author/columnist/producer Will Friedwald and pianist David Lahm)....

Karen Akers' ardent 'Francophilia--- and I don't care whether or not it's a real word' was seeded in adolescence and brought to bloom by living in France, becoming fluent in the language, and absorbing European sensibilities (reincarnation is also a distinct possibility). Offering a show of French m...

Holiday cheer is considerably tenuous this year, in much of the country, anyway. But damn if that would prevent Megan Hilty from delivering abundant joy in her four-show engagement at Joe's Pub, a run which began December 2. The concerts were intended to celebrate the release of Hilty's new Christma...

Laura Osnes, Tony-nominated for originating title roles in BONNIE & CLYDE and CINDERELLA, has devoted an entire cabaret act to pondering that hypothetical what if. Bringing an updated version of her show THE PATHS NOT TAKEN back to Feinstein's/54 Below for a four-performance run beginning November 2...

Sitting in my seat watching Lance Horne and his many friends perform at NEW WORK NEW WORK I: EXTRAORDINARY DAYS at Joe's Pub, I couldn't help but feel like I was at a really great dinner party (if I were invited to dinner parties with some of the most talented artists in the city). The seats---and, ...

Because Britney Spears grew up in the spotlight, we've seen her as a singer, an actress, a girl, a woman, and everything in between. One thing we haven't seen is Britney the Broadway star, but since that seems about as likely as the second coming of Britney and Justin, it's a damn good thing BROADWA...

Early on in Tori Scott's SEEING DOUBLE, the woman of the hour deadpanned, 'I've been in a rut since birth.' If that's the case, we should all be so lucky. But on the subject of things that could be going better, throughout Scott's performance at Joe's Pub on November 13, the unofficial theme of t...

Barb Jungr is a maverick. She sings R&B and blues from her gut, can slide into jazz phrasing like muted brass, dismantles what we classify as rock so it's stripped to its meaningful bone, has a fervent moral compass, and is characteristically acerbic. Whether her voice rips or ripples, it's authenti...

Three days after the presidential election, with much of the country still in a daze, attempts to reclaim a sense of 'normalcy' felt futile, but a collective grasping for comfort was ever-present. In her return to Feinstein's/54 Below on November 12, a one-night concert benefiting Art House Asto...

There's no easy way to talk about a performance ostensibly thrown in honor of a presidential candidate who didn't end up winning. Let's be clear: Randy Rainbow's ELECTION EVE PARTY held on Monday, night at Birdland wasn't exactly a non-partisan event. The performers dropped more 'I'm With Her' re...

Hirschfeld might draw Judy Collins as a halo of white hair, doe eyes, and a long black line curving, unbroken, to cradle her guitar. She's the image of unstudied elegance, natural, and despite the artist's thanks to Elizabeth Arden, soulfully organic. Judy Collins has been performing for 57 years...

Broadway actress/singer RENEE MARINO made her feature film debut in 2014 in Jersey Boys as Mary Delgado, Frankie Valli's tempestuous wife. She was seen in the role on Broadway by film director Clint Eastwood, and because of her magnanimous talent, was hand picked by him to repeat the role on fil...

Jarrod Spector began performing at three years old. A film of his singing 'Toot, Toot, Tootsie' with emphatic gestures shows the talented artist preternaturally polished. We're then treated to a clip from Ed McMahon's Star Search in which the six-year-old, pint-sized pretender performs Bertolt Brech...

By all accounts, Kate Baldwin is pure Broadway Baby. Having made her Great White Way debut in the 2000 production of THE FULL MONTY, she went on to star in Broadway's THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE, WONDERFUL TOWN, and the celebrated 2009 revival of FINIAN'S RAINBOW, banking a Tony nomination for the latt...

Once a theatre kid, always a theatre kid, and even after Hollywood has called, one cannot seem to elude the song and dance beckoning of their Broadway roots. For proof of such a personification, look no further than Matthew Morrison, the smooth-crooning triple threat who made his Broadway debut i...

On the penultimate night of the 2016 Cabaret Convention, presented by the Mabel Mercer Foundation, 11 fantastic cabaret artists---those who are celebrated in the form as well as those who are emerging alike---assembled to salute the late and legendary Sylvia Syms. The evening, hosted by one of S...

Hold your hats and hallelujah. After an electrifying opening night, the Mabel Mercer Foundation's 27th Annual Cabaret Convention continued Wednesday night in a packed Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Hosted by Jeff Harnar and Andrea Marcovicci, the cabaret community gathered to salute the ...

Often, when performers get their big break at a young age, they spend the ensuing years of their career attempting to escape out from under that encompassing shadow. For Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp, who met in the original Off-Broadway production of RENT in 1995, that is only half true. In the 2...

The Cafe Carlyle is one of most renowned venues for cabaret in the country, seeped in history so rich it could fill a PBS special. In no way, though, does its historical significance relegate a show to seriousness. Take, for example, two-time Tony Award winner Christine Ebersole (42ND STREET, GRE...

The 27th Annual Cabaret Convention, presented by the Mabel Mercer Foundation, kicked off on October 18, putting forth performances by some of the most iconic cabaret artists which the arena has to offer, as well as introducing new but equally captivating talent of the art form. Hosted by KT Sullivan...

Twelve years after his last full show and a full 36 since he performed at the venerable Laurie Beechman Theatre, entertainer (and Don't Tell Mama booker) Sidney Myer commanded the stage as if he'd been there yesterday. I attended the second of three sold-out presentations marked as fundraisers for T...

Invoking Barbra, Judy and a host of other mononymous musical divas, Anneliese van der Pol came to play during her solo show at Feinstein's/54 Below on September 29. Winningly self-deprecating, van der Pol (VANITIES) kept the show moving and refreshingly loose, joking after the first number, 'So I'm ...