Colleen McHugh News

Director Norman Jewison's 1971 film adaptation of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF will air this Saturday, July 5th as part of Reel 13's July line up on THIRTEEN.

Eight-Time Academy Award-Winner Slumdog Millionaire will be featured in the July Reel 13 Lineup

Earlier this year the Broadway musical adaptation of the original 1976 Academy Award-winning film Rocky (which aired on Reel 13in February), made its debut on The Great White Way. The 1979 sequel Rocky II picks up where the first film (and the musical) leave off, with Sylvester Stallone reprising his iconic role as underdog fighter Rocky Balboa, the small-time boxer who gets a rare chance to fight the heavy-weight champion.

Virginia's Signature Theatre opens its' air-conditioned doors once again for the annual Sizzlin' Summer Nights Series. For two and a half weeks, Signature's intimate cabaret venue hosts an eclectic mix of Signature favorites, DC-area stars, and some of New York's most exciting performers. The cabaret series runs July 9 through July 26, with a different performance each night.

If you are even a semi-regular reader of this column of reviews, you know that about every three or four months, I post a compilation of observations of shows from the previous quarter of the year. This cabaret critiquing mash up happens for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that I admittedly see too many cabaret shows for the amount of time I have to promptly review them (and then, of course, the usual writer's procrastination sets in). So I have to prioritize the timeliness of the reviews based on the prestige of the performer, the length of a show run, the strength (or lack thereof) of the performance, etc. The quality of the shows in these compilations—which can range from a half dozen to a dozen reviews in one shot—are usually a mixed bag of outright raves, qualified positives, and constructive pans (I'm not a fan of the word “negative” in the reviewer lexicon). With that in mind here are a collection of cabaret show reviews going back to the start of a very harsh winter.

I was just a little more than a year into my new side career as a cabaret show reviewer when I first saw a Karen Oberlin show. It was Valentine's Day night 2012 and Oberlin—with guitarist Sean Harkness and guest violinist Aaron Weinstein—would be performing her romance-laced set, Stringing Along With Love, at the Metropolitan Room. At the time, all I knew about Oberlin was that she was considered among New York's best female cabaret singers, and I hadn't researched her performing history pre-show. About a third of the way into her set I leaned over to my wife (it was Valentine's Day after all) and whispered, “You know, she has a real Doris Day quality in her voice and in the way she delivers some lyrics.” This immediately ratcheted up my appreciation for Oberlin since there are four passions I inherited from my Dad—baseball, reading the morning papers, sports writing and Doris Day (well, also Sophia Loren, but that's for another column). Since Dad had grown up during the prime of the Big Band Era of the 1940s, I heard the sultry sounds of a young Doris Day singing songs like “Sentimental Journey” on the family stereo more than a few times. Once I saw Day's strikingly adorable blondness on a record cover and her rocking body in one of her films, I knew what Dad was talking about. As popular, famous, and near iconic as Doris Day became, in my book, as a singer and screen beauty she's always been vastly underrated. Little did I know that Karen Oberlin had been doing a Doris Day tribute show so since 2001 at places like Firebird, Iridium, and the late Danny's Skylight Room, and produced a CD, Secret Love: The Music of Doris Day, in 2002. Karen Oberlin had instantly become my secret love.

The New York Pops marked its 31st birthday with a grand gala evening last night, celebrating the work of composer, lyricist, and arranger Marc Shaiman and director, lyricist, and writer Scott Wittman, as well as the leadership and mentorship work of corporate honoree Paul J. Massey, Jr., CEO and Founding Partner of Massey Knakal Realty Services. Gala Co-Chairs include Neil Heilberg, Todd Korren, William C. Montana, and James A. Read. Serving as Honorary Co-Chairs for the event are stars Matthew Broderick, Debra Messing, and Sarah Jessica Parker. Below, BroadwayWorld brings you a look inside the afterparty, featuring guests Patti LuPone, Nathan Lane, Andrea Martin and more!

The Reel 13 April schedule opens on April 5 with The Big Country, William Wyler's tale of two feuding ranching families in the American West, for which Burl Ives won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

The Meeting* hosted by Justin Sayre, the acclaimed comedy/variety show, will make its premiere performance at THE RRAZZ ROOM on Thursday, April 17 at 8:00 PM. After extended runs at 54 Below and Joe's Pub in New York, the show will make its Pennsylvania debut with this show. The Meeting* has been called 'delicious and delightfully droll' by The New York Post, and 'hilarious and sardonic' by The Village Voice. A recent story for Slate.com called the evening 'so deliciously icy that it left me shivering with fear and delight.' The show will feature special guests Colleen McHugh.

Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs (MAC), dedicated to advancing the art and business of live entertainment, held their 28th Annual MAC Awards celebration last evening at BB King's Blues club in Times Square. Winners in twenty-five categories were announced. The show was hosted by the vivacious singer, band leader, multiple MAC Award winner and 2014 Nominee, Terese Genecco. The gala was produced by Julie Miller and directed by Lennie Watts, the current MAC President. Don Rebic served as Musical Director. Presenters included Will Friedwald of the Wall Street Journal and designer Bob Mackie.

The classic The Picture of Dorian Gray, based on Oscar Wilde's novel, leads March's shortened Reel 13 schedule.

Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs (MAC), dedicated to advancing the art and business of live entertainment, has announced the nominees for the 2014 MAC Awards. Winners in twenty-five categories will be voted by the MAC membership by anonymous ballot and announced at the MAC Awards Gala on March 27th at BB King's Blue Club in Times Square at: 237 W. 42 St between 7th and 8th Avenues. Tickets start at $50.00. For additional information on MAC, to become a member, or to order tickets to the event, visit: http://macnyc.com.

Natalie Wood's portrayal of Gypsy Rose Lee and Rosalind Russell (in Ethel Merman's original role) as an overbearing mother, in the big screen adaptation of Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim's Broadway musical Gypsy, lead the pack of movies in February on Reel 13.

Natalie Wood's portrayal of Gypsy Rose Lee and Rosalind Russell (in Ethel Merman's original role) as an overbearing mother, in the big screen adaptation of Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim's Broadway musical Gypsy, lead the pack of movies in February on Reel 13.

The Meeting* hosted by Justin Sayre - the acclaimed comedy/variety show hailed as 'rambunctious, uproarious and unpredictable' by The Wall Street Journal, 'delicious and delightfully droll' by The New York Post, and 'hilarious and sardonic' by The Village Voice - has moved to 54 BELOW for a six month run after four sell-out seasons in New York's West Village. The next show will be on Wednesday, November 20 at 9:30 PM. Justin Sayre and The Meeting*, known for a signature blend of outrageous comedy, politics, culture and everything in between, were named one of the Top 10 nightclub shows of 2011 by Time Out New York, received the 2012 Bistro Award for 'Comedy Artistry' and a 2011 MAC Award nomination for Best Male Comedy Performance.

Coming up this week, 54 BELOW, the performance venue located just below the legendary Studio 54 at 254 West 54th Street, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz and beyond:

The Meeting* hosted by Justin Sayre - the acclaimed comedy/variety show hailed as 'rambunctious, uproarious and unpredictable' by The Wall Street Journal, 'delicious and delightfully droll' by The New York Post, and 'hilarious and sardonic' by The Village Voice - has moved to 54 BELOW for a six month run after four sell-out seasons in New York's West Village. The next show will be on Wednesday, November 20 at 9:30 PM. Justin Sayre and The Meeting*, known for a signature blend of outrageous comedy, politics, culture and everything in between, were named one of the Top 10 nightclub shows of 2011 by Time Out New York, received the 2012 Bistro Award for 'Comedy Artistry' and a 2011 MAC Award nomination for Best Male Comedy Performance.

'Hidden Treasures II: Songs of Larry Kerchner' will be performed as a benefit for The Michael Feinstein Great American Songbook Initiative tonight, November 3, at 8:30 PM at Stage 72 (at the Triad), 158 West 72nd Street.

JOE'S PUB at the Public Theater will present the latest installment of the "ALBUM OF THE MONTH CLUB" concert series on Tuesday, November 26 at 9:30 PM. In an evening honoring the Frank Sinatra album "Come Fly With Me" - or The International Sinatra - the show will feature the talents of Molly Pope, Lady Rizo, Rob Roth, Blind Boy Paxton, Christina Bianco, Colleen McHugh, Liam Forde, Tatiana Eve-Marie, Adrian Chavalier & the Avalon Jazz Band and Ago Il Mago. Music will be provided by Sammy Miller & The Congregation under the direction of Jon Weber. The show is hosted by Molly Pope and curated by Wall Street Journal jazz writer Will Friedwald and Michael Katsobashvili.

'Hidden Treasures II: Songs of Larry Kerchner' will be performed as a benefit for The Michael Feinstein Great American Songbook Initiative on Sunday, November 3, at 8:30 PM at Stage 72 (at the Triad), 158 West 72nd Street.