It will be a festive Halloween night on October 31 at the Pangea Club and Restaurant (178 Second Avenue, between 11th and 12th streets) when Stephen Hanks and his Cabaret Life Productions presents the second of his new bi-monthly variety series with a special Halloween Night Variety Show. The show stars six sensational and highly-praised women cabaret performers who are smart, sassy, sexy, and whose singing is SCARY great--SANDRA BARGMAN, REMY BLOCK, CORY SEMINOWICZ, RACHEL WINELL, MAC Award-Winning Songwriter AMY ENGELHARDT, and KIM SUTTON, who won a 2015 BroadwayWorld.com Cabaret Award for 'Best Show, Female.' Featuring Musical Director/Pianist DARYL KOJAK with Hanks as host.
Amy Beth Williams returns to Don't Tell Mama with her show, Carried Away, featuring:
Daryl Kojak - Piano
Ritt Henn - Bass
Will Holshouser = Accordion
John Henry Williams - Violin
With that said, this journey I'll be taking you on is my way of paying tribute to those greatest of all-around Entertainers that ever lived: the Lounge Singers. Oh, and just one more thing. The Lounge Singer was usually accompanied by an excellent musician or two. Well, I couldn't afford the "or two" part of it, but I did manage to get one of the best Piano Players in NYC; THE Mr. Daryl Kojak!
With that said, this journey I'll be taking you on is my way of paying tribute to those greatest of all-around Entertainers that ever lived: the Lounge Singers. Oh, and just one more thing. The Lounge Singer was usually accompanied by an excellent musician or two. Well, I couldn't afford the "or two" part of it, but I did manage to get one of the best Piano Players in NYC; THE Mr. Daryl Kojak!
In 1991, after having performed as a jazz vocalist in the New York nightclub scene for about five years, Laurie Krauz was searching for a new musical director-and a new musical direction. She had cast a wide net until a friend recommended Daryl Kojak and Laurie scheduled a getting-to-know-you session. 'I don't exactly recall the first song we worked on together but I felt as if I was being levitated off the floor when he played for me,' Laurie remembers. 'It was magic and it has remained magic for a 25 years.' Now Krauz and Kojak will display what Laurie calls 'A collaboration for the ages' at the Metropolitan Room on May 13 at 7 pm in the ninth show of the critically acclaimed monthly series, New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits.
I didn't catch Rosemary Loar's original 2006 presentation of 'Quando Swing,' but I can't imagine it performed with more muscular honesty than it was Wednesday night at the Metropolitan Room in the latest monthly installment of Producer Stephen Hanks' 'New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits' series. We've come to expect lucid, intriguing shows from the vocalist, but engagement level on this occasion felt almost cathartic. Energy was full tilt, lyric communication authentic.
Jeff Macauley loves Dinah Shore. That's usually the case when a cabaret performer devotes an entire show to a star's body of work. But there's affection and admiration, and then there's all-encompassing passion and adoration that informs the performer's every note, lyric, and anecdote, and thereby imparts that love to us (whether or not we were previously fans). By that standard, MWAH! The Dinah Shore Show, Macauley's 1998 Backstage Bistro Award Winner for 'Outstanding Theme Show' (revived last Saturday night as part of Stephen Hanks' monthly New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits series at the Metropolitan Room--is one of the most successful shows of its kind I've seen.
Stephen Hanks' Cabaret Life Productions (with support from Associate Producer Fr Jeffrey Hamblin, MD) presents cabaret performing veteran JEFF MACAULEY for the February 2016 installment of the BroadwayWorld.com Award nominated NEW YORK CABARET'S GREATEST HITS at the Metropolitan Room on February 13 at 7 pm.
Critically acclaimed jazz singer Laurie Krauz and her Award-winning Musical Director Daryl Kojak have reinvented Krauz's original show Tapestry Rewoven into Tapestry Rewoven UNPLUGGED and the duo-with just Krauz singing and Kojak at piano--will perform two sets at Cafe Noctambulo at Pangea (178 2nd Avenue between 11th and 12th Streets) on Saturday, November 7 at 7 and 9 pm.
Back in January, BroadwayWorld's lead cabaret reviewer Stephen Hanks announced he was giving up critiquing shows to start his own company, Cabaret Life Productions, through which he would publicize, promote, and help book cabaret performers, and also produce cabaret shows. Hanks' first major production out of the box is a monthly series at the Metropolitan Room called New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits, that features talented artists recreating award-winning or highly-praised shows we wish we'd seen--a really good idea. Hanks' series launched Wednesday night with Mark Nadler's award-winning 2003 show Tschaikowsky (And Other Russians). The Metropolitan Room was filled to the gills and abuzz with anticipation, as most of the audience was only familiar with the show's second-hand praise and/or the CD version of Nadler's performance.
For diehard cabaret fans and lovers of live music, there's nothing like experiencing a classic show once again or seeing an award winning 'blast from the past' for the first time. That's how cabaret show producer and publicist Stephen Hanks felt and so through his new company, Cabaret Life Productions, he's launching a new monthly series at New York's Metropolitan Room (34 West 22nd Street) titled New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits. Hanks wanted the cream of the New York cabaret crop to open the series and tapped veteran cabaret star Mark Nadler, who the New York Times critic Stephen Holden has called 'Mr. Show Business' and 'an immensely talented latter-day Al Jolson.' On August 26 (7-8:30 pm), Nadler will perform his critically acclaimed show Tschaikowsky (And Other Russians), which won a 2003 Bistro Award for 'Raising Standards of Cabaret Performance,' and received MAC and Nightlife Award Nominations for 'Outstanding Performance in a Major Engagement.'
For the first time in 15 years, cabaret star Julie Reyburn brings back her award-winning show, Fate Is Kind, to a New York nightclub stage when she performs the classic at the Metropolitan Room on Monday, September 14 at 7 pm as part of the new monthly series, New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits, produced by Stephen Hanks' Cabaret Life Productions with cabaret supporter Fr. Jeffrey Hamblin, MD as Associate Producer. [Reyburn's show will follow the Series launch on August 26 at 7 pm with Mark Nadler's critically acclaimed Tschaikowsky (And Other Russians), which won a 2003 Bistro Award.] Reyburn and her celebrated Musical Director Mark Janas (Producer of the Award-Winning Open-Mic show Salon) introduced Fate Is Kind in February 2000 at The Singer's Forum as a benefit cabaret for their scholarship program. It then moved to Judy's Chelsea in March 2000 for its official cabaret debut, and the show ran off and on there for most of the year. Fate Is Kind world earn Reyburn MAC and Bistro Awards in 2001 for "Outstanding Female Cabaret Debut."
For diehard cabaret fans and lovers of live music, there's nothing like experiencing a classic show once again or seeing an award winning 'blast from the past' for the first time. That's how cabaret show producer and publicist Stephen Hanks felt and so through his new company, Cabaret Life Productions, he's launching a new monthly series at New York's Metropolitan Room (34 West 22nd Street) titled New York Cabaret's Greatest Hits. Hanks wanted the cream of the New York cabaret crop to open the series and tapped veteran cabaret star Mark Nadler, who the New York Times critic Stephen Holden has called 'Mr. Show Business' and 'an immensely talented latter-day Al Jolson.' On August 26 (7-8:30 pm), Nadler will perform his critically acclaimed show Tschaikowsky (And Other Russians), which won a 2003 Bistro Award for 'Raising Standards of Cabaret Performance,' and received MAC and Nightlife Award Nominations for 'Outstanding Performance in a Major Engagement.'
Music Theatre of Connecticut presents actress/singer Leslie Orofino for one night only with her hit show, 'Red Hot and Blues.' The performance will take place tonight, June 20 at 8pm at The Melissa and Doug Theatre at Music Theatre of Connecticut, 509 Westport Avenue (Route One, behind Jones New York and Nine West in Norwalk, CT. Tickets are $30-40, includes a complimentary glass of wine (for patrons 21 and over), and reservations are suggested. For tickets, call Music Theatre of Connecticut at 203.454.3883 or visit www.musictheatreofct.com
Music Theatre of Connecticut presents actress/singer Leslie Orofino for one night only with her hit show, 'Red Hot and Blues.' The performance will take place on Saturday, June 20 at 8pm at The Melissa and Doug Theatre at Music Theatre of Connecticut, 509 Westport Avenue (Route One, behind Jones New York and Nine West in Norwalk, CT. Tickets are $30-40, includes a complimentary glass of wine (for patrons 21 and over), and reservations are suggested. For tickets, call Music Theatre of Connecticut at 203.454.3883 or visit www.musictheatreofct.com
'I was at the Police Reunion Concert at Madison Square Garden in 2008 and the energy was through the roof,' says vocalist/actress/writer Rosemary Loar at the start of her new show, STING-chronicity, at the Metropolitan Room. 'We were 18,000 strong, each of us challenging ownership of this man's music.' Loar feels special rapport with the oeuvre of Sting (Gordon Sumner, who was Police's lead singer and principal songwriter from 1977-1986, before he launched an incredibly successful solo career) as represented by her earlier show and CD, the celebratory Sting, Stang, Stung (see video of the 2010 show, below). 'We're onto the same zeitgeist,' Loar recently revealed in an interview. 'We're both Catholics and some of his writing is about obsession, guilt and penance.'
Last September, after appearing at the popular Manhattan open mic cabaret show, Salon, Bistro and MAC Award-winning singer Amy Beth Williams was struck by a car near her home in Brooklyn. Now an all-star roster of Williams' fellow cabaret performers and friends will stage a benefit show, Once In Love With Amy, at Don't Tell Mama tonight, January 21 at 7 pm, to help replace the funds Williams has lost during her extensive recovery.
Last September, after appearing at the popular Manhattan open mic cabaret show, Salon, Bistro and MAC Award-winning singer Amy Beth Williams was struck by a car near her home in Brooklyn. Now an all-star roster of Williams' fellow cabaret performers and friends will stage a benefit show, Once In Love With Amy, at Don't Tell Mama on January 21 at 7 pm, to help raise the funds Williams has lost during her extensive recovery.
If you've been a regular reader of this particular reviewer's musings, you know that every year there are long stretches of time where I just haven't been able to critique all the shows I've seen that deserve commentary. So I end up playing what they call in sports, 'Catch-up ball,' and post a mash up of belated reviews from past shows. It's kind of like a critic's version of the song 'Six Months Out of Every Year,' from Damn Yankees. Give or take a month or two, that's usually the time period during which I store unpublished reviews in my fevered brain and then unload them all in one seemingly endless column-like this one is going to be. If my cabaret-show reviewing days will be over (as chronicled here), I might as well go out with a bang-and relieve my procrastination guilt during holiday season. Now I can scratch one New Year's resolution off the list.
