CABARET THEATER REVIEWS

Fresh off her 2016 MAC Award for best original song after a successful revival of Portraits (1993) for Stephen Hanks' New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits series, Meg Flather paid tribute in Carly & Me to the 'artist who gave [her] her voice.' With her longtime musical director Paul Greenwood on piano a...

On Sunday July 31 Michael Sterling celebrated 10 years of his cabaret supper club now called Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal with a mega-delightful show headlining the music of his mentor Rosemary Clooney called Everything's Coming Up Rosie. On the bill were two exuberantly talented singers�...

Let's be honest - with the state of current affairs, the political circus, the ongoing tragedies around the world - we're all feeling at least a little jaded these days. So it makes sense that DC singer Jade Jones' 'Jazzed and Jaded,' part of Creative Cauldron's 2016 Summer Cabaret Series, is exactl...

Cynthia von Buhler's Speakeasy Dollhouse: The Bloody Beginning grew out of the artist's lifelong fascination with the mysterious death of her Italian immigrant grandfather, Frank Spano, in 1935. Originally conceived as a one-night event, Speakeasy Dollhouse took on a life of its own and since 2011 h...

'Broad: A term originated in the 1930s meaning woman. Less respectable than 'lady,' but much more respectable than 'bitch.' Broad: An independent, aggressive, assertive woman, usually in show business. Broads sing loud, are sarcastic, and are in your face. Broads are generally moderately attractive ...

One thing you may be sure of in attending a Jeanne Page concert: you will have a good time. The lady is a dynamic singer, giving it everything she's got and really enjoys doing it. She has such fun...

Alt-cabaret star Lady Rizo (aka Amelia Zirin-Brown) made her way to the stage to join her multi-instrumental accompanist, Yair Evnine. Threading regally through the audience, she held a translucent umbrella over her head, singing (my favorite Prince song) 'The Beautiful Ones' to Evnine's cello in a ...

In an evening featuring classic musical favorites and unexpected gems, longtime DC performer Dani Stoller presents 'Awkward: A Musical Ode to the Funny Best Friend' as part of Creative Cauldron's 2016 Summer Cabaret Series....

In her A-line black and white polka dot dress with petticoats, a lively (and lithe!) Maureen Taylor delivered an entertaining tribute to lyricist Bob Merrill at the Metropolitan Room (on July 13). Originally directed by Peter Napolitano when the show debuted in 2008-09, Taylor Made is the latest ins...

In the year that celebrates 125 years since Cole Porter's birth, cabaret favourite Michael Griffiths channels the famous composer with his one man show COLE....

DANI & THE LION is cabaret as it was meant to be. Created by Daneel van der Walt, who performs original songs and stories with a cameo appearance by a few unexpected classic tunes, this show sets the gold standard for this trickiest of theatre genres....

If Lorelai Gilmore, with her lightning fast speech, did political satire while rapping and playing both the piano and acoustic guitar, it would look something like Katie Goodman's hybrid comedy and cabaret act. Her latest show, I Didn't F*ck It Up, ran at Stage 72 (The Triad) on June 17, her cabaret...

Though somewhat familiar with and already an admirer of actor/vocalists Carpathia Jenkins and Alton Fitzgerald White, I was, until tonight, unaware of the apparently prolific musician, songwriter, librettist, and educator Louis Rosen. Rosen's Dream Suite, which occupied the second part of this June ...

A longtime member of the Grammy-nominated a cappella band, the Bobs, LA-based composer/vocalist Amy Engelhardt delivered a riotously funny hour of song at Don't Tell Mama on what she conceded was a “shvitzy” Sunday in June (the 19th to be exact). Three o'clock on Father's Day may not be the b...

The stories and snipes of a Latino 'superstar' are shared over 70 minutes of high energy dance and song in ¡HISPANIC ATTACK!...

2016 is one of Broadway's most diverse seasons, so much so it spawned a Twitter trending hashtag #TonysSoDiverse following the nominations for this past weekend's awards ceremony. 12 Black and non-Black actors of color were nominated for a Tony Award. For the first time in the Tonys' history, all fo...

Adelaide's favourite clown and Cabaret personality Hew Parham takes on a new persona to explore what goes into a make a Cabaret....

Jazz at Lincoln Center's 2016 Popular Song series at the Appel Room ended this year's agenda on June 8 with host Michael Feinstein's appreciation of the interconnection between swing and popular song, a subject about which he's clearly enthusiastic. Each musical era, he suggests, is previewed by a s...

On June 7, the Rockwell Table & Stage featured the stunning vocals of Michael Longoria. Smartly written by Longoria and his director Taylor James, Broadway standards received re-imagined, re-purposed raison-d'etre in advancing Longoria's fascinating narrative. His verbal accounts (serving as song in...

When New York cabaret community insiders and frequent club goers heard that Marissa Mulder was planning a Marilyn Monroe-themed show, the consensus was the vocalist's naturally breathy voice paired with a roster of songs from Monroe's films would be a good fit. Sidestepping expectations, Mulder and ...

Ronny Whyte epitomizes everything gracious, refined, and sophisticated that's become rare in music presented by artists under a certain age and temperament. Even with jazz interpretation, his accessible choices and deceptively casual delivery present songs as their authors intended. When he composes...

Joey Arias, vocalist/songwriter/actor/performance artist/host, has been on the scene here since the 1980s. Visually and vocally distinctive, Arias's signature black bangs and ponytail have been on stages such as Club 57, Astor Theater, HERE, and Abrons Art Center--not to mention playing Mistress of ...

Vivian Reed and her consummate band—led by conductor and pianist Billy McDaniel, and joined by guest vocalists Janinah Burnett and Raun Ruffin—dazzled a packed Metropolitan Room on May 23 with her new show, An Evening with Vivian Reed: Standards and More....

The fourth time was the charm for Minda Larsen, winner of the 2015 MetroStar Competition: “I have an MFA in opera,” she joked during the debut of her show, My Southern Song, at the Metropolitan Room on May 21, “So it took four tries in six years to win that competition.” The remark is typica...

Veteran performers Jim Brochu and Steve Ross have known one another since the 1970s, an era when New York was filled with piano bars, cabaret rooms, and nightclubs. Pause for a deep, wistful sigh. Framing their new show, Two Guys and a Grand (last Wednesday night at the Laurie Beechman Theatre), in ...