Review: LADY DAY AT EMERSON'S BAR AND GRILL at Mosaic Theater Company
by David Friscic - Sep 10, 2024
The celebrated and now-iconic jazz vocalist and legend Billie Holiday is portrayed as a tormented “just holding on” survivor in playwright Lanie Robertson’s play Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill. The audience is transported back to the feel of this classic bar and grill to the year 1959 where a tired-out “Lady Day” (Billie Holiday) looks back at her life and sings fifteen of her classic songs with three superb jazz accompanists backing her up. The nightclub ambience of Emerson’s Bar and Grill envelops the theater’s patrons as soon as they enter Mosaic Theater Company’s top-notch cabaret setting (scenic designer Nadir Bey’s atmospheric work includes a neon-lit sign, and a stage filled with warmth).
James Taylor Comes To Bethel Woods
by Stephi Wild - Jan 23, 2020
Bethel Woods Center for the Arts today announced that legendary singer-songwriter James Taylor will perform at the historic site of the 1969 Woodstock festival on Friday, June 19th with special guest Jackson Browne.
BWW Review: Patina Miller Charms at Kean Stage
by Marina Kennedy - Mar 26, 2019
Patina Miller thrilled the full house audience at Kean Stage's Enlow Recital Hall on Saturday night, March 23. Her 90-minute show featured a well-selected, varied repertoire of songs, all wonderfully performed.
BWW Review: Kennedy Davenport Puts Emotion on Display in Cathartic THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO KENNEDY DAVENPORT
by Troy Frisby - Sep 6, 2018
"There's nothing formal about this but this dress." Kennedy Davenport's aside, just several minutes into her August 23 performance of THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO KENNEDY DAVENPORT at the Laurie Beechman Theatre, couldn't have been truer. And, to put it in RUPAUL'S DRAG RACE speak, that informality represented both the top and the bottom of the performance--- though, rest assured, nobody was in danger of elimination.
Vocalist Teri Roiger Releases 'Ghost Of Yesterday Shades of Lady Day'
by Caryn Robbins - Jul 19, 2017
New York based vocalist Teri Roiger recently released her fourth recording as a leader, 'GHOST OF YESTERDAY: Shades of Lady Day', a heartfelt tribute to Billie Holiday. Since Ms. Holiday provided the initial spark that led to a lifelong commitment to jazz, this one is especially personal to Teri.
BWW Review: JOEY ARIAS (with Ben Allison) Brings His LITTLE BLACK BOOK and Downtown Sensibilities To Pangea
by Alix Cohen - Jun 1, 2016
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 Seduction at Cirque du Soleil's Zumanity in Las Vegas. To say the physically diminutive Arias is larger than life is a comment on her fully inhabited, unique presence and talent. On May 30 (the third of seven show run through late July), she's aided and abetted in Little Black Book (no idea what the title means) by Musical Director (and superb bass player) Ben Allison and guitarist Brandon Seabrook.
BWW Review: Rumer Willis Channels Smoky Chanteuses in Café Carlyle Debut
by David Clarke - Apr 9, 2016
Actress/singer Rumer Willis returns to New York City with her spellbinding debut at Cafe Carlyle. Having previously wowed New York audiences as Roxie in Broadway's CHICAGO and at Feinstein's/54 Below, Willis' sultry instrument and chanteuse aura melds her youthful energy with the reverence for music that is associated with this historic venue.
BWW Review: Terri Lyne Carrington's Lincoln Center American Songbook Show Is a Patchwork of Strong Vocals Too Often Buried In Sound
by Alix Cohen - Feb 29, 2016
Multiple Grammy-winning drummer, composer, producer, and bandleader Terri Lyne Carrington and her group play dense, intense jazz with elusive melody. Ornette Coleman's 'Chronology' arrives like a wall of sound. An adamant and up-tempo 'Body and Soul' (Edward Heyman/Robert Sour/Frank Eyton/Johnny Green) is almost tribal, at odds with familiar mood and lyric intention. Towards the end of Saturday night's show--Mosaic Project: Love and Soul--in the American Songbook Series at Lincoln Center's Appel Room, Ms. Carrington executes a lengthy solo spotlighting her extraordinary musicianship, but instrumental arrangements escape me.
BWW Reviews: A Journey of 4000 MILES at the FAC
by Christi Esterle - Mar 30, 2015
Her name was Lee Joseph. She passed away in 2013 at the age of 96, after what was in every sense of the term a full life. She hung around with the sort of people who got called before the HUAC, was married for a time to Arthur Herzog, Jr. (who co-wrote the Billie Holliday standard 'God Bless the Child'), and was an activist up through the later days of her life, when she marched in Occupy Wall Street protests. And she served as the basis for Vera, the punchy nonagenarian at the center of her granddaughter Amy Herzog's play 4000 Miles, now in its Colorado debut at the Fine Arts Center.
BWW Reviews: Anika Larsen Charms at Birdland
by David Clarke - Mar 25, 2015
Celebrating the release of SING YOU TO SLEEP, Anika Larsen made her solo concert debut at Birdland on Monday, March 23. Joined by her BEAUTIFUL castmates Jessie Mueller and Jarrod Spector and her XANADU castmate Kenita Miller, Larsen's set featured songs from her album and thematically appropriate solos that featured her guests' talents too. Thus, the evening was the perfect night cap to an otherwise manic Monday.