Gus Kahn News

The 'Gershwin Musical Comedy Extravaganza' CRAZY FOR YOU opens at Faith Conservatory.

Steppenwolf's LookOut and Second City Theatricals have teamed up to re-create a staged-reading of the smash hit musical, "The People vs. Friar Laurence, the Man Who Killed Romeo and Juliet" as part of Shakespeare 400 Chicago on Saturday, June 25 and Sunday, June 26 at 8:00pm.  

When vocalist Todd Murray discovered several of the musicians for his excellent show Croon were unavailable for their scheduled Valentine's Day appearance last Sunday afternoon at the Metropolitan Room, he asked Sean Harkness (the guitarist in the show) to join him for a two-hander. The fortuitous accident yielded a terrific presentation of romantic material from sentimental to ardent, a pared down sharing of unadulterated heart and high musical craft that deserves wider audience. “It's our goal to put you in the mood,” Murray tells us. They do.

Last Sunday, New York's Birdland Jazz Club welcomed the third and fourth shows in Ann Hampton Callaway's This is Cabaret series that is subsequently aired on National Public Radio (check local listings for dates and times). As increased exposure is vital to the health of the art form, one can only applaud its emergence. Callaway's special guests (one in each hour segment) were jazz performer Kurt Elling and cabaret Goddess Marilyn Maye.

Sydney audiences were treated to a wonderful selection of music from shows from 1922 to 2010 as AUDRA McDONALD SINGS BROADWAY with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

A rare original TV musical comes to DVD at last!

Danny Bacher has the performance ease of an artist who's spent twice his years on the circuit. His preternatural feel for swing delivers scrupulous control, hip, unfussy phrasing, nuanced inflection, and the kind of fluent, savory scat “wordless vocables” I haven't heard from a man in some time, certainly not one so young. His soprano saxophone and singing are so like one another in attitude and energy, Bacher epitomizes the musician whose instrument acts as solid manifestation of voice. His new CD release celebration show at the Metropolitan Room, Swing That Music (last performance of a four-show run today at 4 pm) is a jazz tribute to the three Louis: Louis Armstrong--Satchmo (1901-1971), Louis Prima--The King of Swing before Benny Goodman came along (1910-1978), and Louis Jordan--King of the Jukebox (1908-1975.) Musical numbers get along like the old friends they are, brushing shoulders, poking one another in the ribs, slapping backs. The show is well paced with next to no patter. Danny Bacher is the real deal; a musician to watch.

I could probably write a one sentence review of Audra McDonald's concert at Bethesda's magnificent Music Center at Strathmore that would sum up my reaction quite well. It would read something like this: Audra is perfection and can do anything.

Whoopee, Musicals Tonight!'s next production, has a book by William Anthony McGuire, music by Walter Donaldson, and lyrics by Gus Kahn. It opened on December 4, 1928 at the New Amsterdam Theater. It starred Eddie Cantor, Ruth Etting, and Buddy Ebsen. Performances run tonight, March 3 - 15, 2015 at The Lion Theatre.

“Are You Havin' Any Fun?” the formidable Barbara Cook breezily asks in song with the intimacy of an old friend. Having had her first paid (50 cents) singing job at the age of eight, Cook looks back on a lengthy career feeling lucky. It's been weeks since she's sung due to health issues laying her low, but Cook is not, she assures us, by any means down and out. “I like to feel people are on my side and you sure sound like you are.” Throughout her show last night as part of the American Songbook series at Lincoln Center's The Appel Room, the artist performs with honesty, commitment, and the compelling interpretation for which she's well known. She asks that lights be turned up in order to see those with whom she communicates.

Whoopee, Musicals Tonight!'s next production, has a book by William Anthony McGuire, music by Walter Donaldson, and lyrics by Gus Kahn. It opened on December 4, 1928 at the New Amsterdam Theater. It starred Eddie Cantor, Ruth Etting, and Buddy Ebsen. Performances run March 3 - 15, 2015 at The Lion Theatre.

For Canfield and Kelly's From Broadway to Survivor cabaret, the charming couple shared with audiences their New York experiences, love story, and their vibrant talents. This made for a fun night of Broadway showmanship that amused the collected audience.

Today we are saluting one of Broadway's best-loved leading ladies in honor of her new cabaret show kicking off this week at 54 Below, the one and only Patti LuPone.

When Margaret Whiting died on January 10, 2011, the news was like a dagger into the heart of the New York cabaret community. Whiting was a beloved singer for almost seven decades, who seemingly delivered every American popular song ever written, conquered almost every musical art form--from Big Band to Country to Musicals to Cabaret, from radio to the recording studio. On top of all that, Whiting worked with and mentored many New York cabaret musical directors and performers, including the late Mary Cleere Haran and K.T. Sullivan, who along with Whiting's daughter Deborah, hosted a 90th birthday Whiting tribute show on Monday night at Carnegie Hall's elegant Weill Recital Hall. Presented by The Mabel Mercer Foundation, for which Sullivan is Artistic Director, It Might As Well Be Spring! A Celebration in Song of the Life of Margaret Whiting was an almost three-hour concert featuring two All-Star teams worth of cabaret stars spanning a few generations.

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.

In mid-August, the news website Bloomberg.com reported that 54 Below, the popular new nightclub that opened last June in the basement of the old Studio 54, needed a major cash infusion in the six-figure range if it was going to survive. Perhaps if they just book Liz and Ann Hampton Callaway on a regular basis-either individually or together-their bottom line will start singing a happy tune. The sisterly songbirds recently sold out a five-show run at the venue with a revival of their crowd-pleasing show 'Sibling Revelry.'

Scot Albertson (Vocalist - Performer - Producer - Recording Artist) - www.scotalbertson.com) announces his sixth CD release concert, set for tonight June 17, 2013 at 7:30p.m. at Symphony Space Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre, located at 2537 Broadway & West 95th Street, New York City, NY.

Scot Albertson (Vocalist - Performer - Producer - Recording Artist) - www.scotalbertson.com) announces his sixth CD release concert, set for Monday June 17, 2013 at 7:30p.m. at Symphony Space Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre, located at 2537 Broadway & West 95th Street, New York City, NY.

American Stage Theatre Company has announced its After Hours events this March with everything from the comedy improv to cabaret music at its best. This month the stage will have five entertaining events.

American Stage Theatre Company has announced its After Hours events this March with everything from the comedy improv to cabaret music at its best. This month the stage will have five entertaining events.