Laurie Beechman News

After selling out an often-extended Off-Broadway run in 2013 and a 3-month Australian tour in 2014, RuPaul's Drag Race favorite Jinkx Monsoon will return with a one-week run of THE VAUDEVILLIANS, a musical comedy co-starring composer and musician Major Scales. This limited engagement will showcase a revised version of the acclaimed cult hit comedy, shortened to 75 minutes and with new material added -- all in advance of a 3- month summer run at The Art House Theater in Provincetown.

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.

Artists in Partnership (AIP), a non-profit cultural arts organization, will host its 12th Annual Cabaret Festival May 15-18 at the Long Beach Public Library, 111 West Park Avenue, Long Beach, NY. All performances are FREE to the public. The festival will be a celebration of the cabaret genre honoring the Great American Songbook with performances by renowned local and New York City-based artists.

PATTI ISSUES, the hit Off-Broadway play is set to play Miami Beach on Friday, May 9th at 8pm (presented by legendary Broadway and concert producer-director Richard Jay-Alexander in association with Edison Farrow and South Beach Cabaret) at The Cabaret South Beach (233 12th Street, Miami Beach, FL 33139).

BROADWAY SESSIONS is described as an evening of musical performances, games and open mic featuring a new Broadway guest each week. The show is created and hosted by Ben Cameron (Bway Wicked, Aida and Footloose) and features musical director Joshua Stephen Kartes on piano. This Thursday, May 8th, Broadway Sessions welcomes the graduating Musical theater class from Boston Conservatory along with special guest BoCo alums and guest hosts Nikka Graff Lanzarone and Kendal Hartse.

Paul Chamlin & Rochelle Breyer Chamlin present "Gems by Jule: Selections from the Jule Styne Songbook" at the Laurie Beechman Theatre 6/1 and 6/10 at 7:00pm.

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.

Following the success of Lyric Tramp: The Songs of Alex Rubin, Get a Room! will launch in June as a six-month project pairing Alex Rubin with some of New York's hottest composers.

Tickets are on sale for I Need Some Space: The Lyrics of Robby Sandler, returning to the Laurie Beechman theatre on Monday, May 19th at 7 pm, after a sold out debut this past July. The evening of music by the BMI lyricist is produced by Rudy Scala and features the talents of Mariand Torres (The Great Comet, Wicked), Ken Clark (The Great Comet, February House), Andrew Keltz (The Golden Land), Lizzie Hagstedt (Southern Comfort, Sweeney Todd), Shoshanna Richman (I Heart NY, Fiddler), and Ariana Shore (The Performers). Among the composer collaborators featured in the hour long evening are Daniel Green, Lizzie Hagstedt, Jonathan Monro, Andy Roninson, and Benjamin Velez. Tickets are $15 and may be reserved by visiting lauriebeechmantheatre.com.

Jeremy Kushnier, Leenya Rideout, and Jarvis Darrell will lead an army of nerds on parade in the Un-Ironically Enthusiastic concert, showcasing original songs by original geeks featuring famous noobs and all the cool kids, today May 3.

Joanna Jones (Thriller Live!), Coby Getzug (The Black Suits, Spring Awakening), Ryan Castellino (Life Could Be a Dream), Travis Leland and Caitlyn Calfas join up and coming musical theatre writer Zack Zadek in his LA debut at Rockwell on Sunday May 4, at 7PM.

Joe's Pub has just announced their lineup of cabaret and burlesque shows for May and June 2014. Featuring Erin Markey, Amy G, and more, the acts are sure to please!

Since its opening in January 2014, THANK YOU FOR BEING A FRIEND has been playing to sold out houses at Laurie Beechman Theater. This unauthorized musical parody inspired by the beloved TV sitcom "The Golden Girls," features book, music and lyrics by Nick Brennan (who also directs) and Luke Jones. The show will end its often-extended run on May 30.

A celebration of Dame Shirley Bassey's illustrious career, THE BOY WHO LOVED BASSEY, is an unforgettable musical tribute written by Ben Cameron and Alan Winner, with musical direction by Andy Roninson, under the direction by Cameron and starring Winner. THE BOY WHO LOVED BASSEY, will play a one night only special engagement on Thursday, May 15th, at 7:00 PM at the Laurie Beechman Theatre (Downstairs West Bank Cafe, 407 W 42nd St, New York, NY 10036). Tickets are $10 (plus $15 food/bev minimum), for reservations call 212-695-6909 (recommended) or purchase online at www.beechmantheatre.com.

Jessica Hendy recently performed 'Chasing Cars' and 'Another Day' at Broadway Sessions on April 17th, 2014. Click below to hear her renditions!

After touring the world with The Vaudevillians, RuPaul's Drag Race favorite and Bistro Award nominee Jinkx Monsoon makes her much anticipated return to New York with JINKX MONSOON: THE INEVITABLE CONCERT. Monsoon will appear live with her band, premiering an evening of songs from her upcoming CD, The Inevitable Album. The CD will be released the week of the show and will available to buy at the theatre. Performances run May 8 - 11 at 7pm at The Laurie Beechman Theater (inside West Bank Cafe at 407 West 42nd Street -- at Ninth Avenue, accessible from the A,C,E,N,R,V,F,1,2,3 trains at 42nd Street). Tickets are $25 (plus a $15 food/drink minimum). A $50 VIP ticket including priority seating and meet-and-greet is also available. To purchase tickets, call 212-352-3101 or visit www.SpinCycleNYC.com.

Artists in Partnership (AIP), a non-profit cultural arts organization, will host its 12th Annual Cabaret Festival May 15-18 at the Long Beach Public Library, 111 West Park Avenue, Long Beach, NY. All performances are FREE to the public. The festival will be a celebration of the cabaret genre honoring the Great American Songbook with performances by renowned local and New York City-based artists.

Joe's Pub at the Public has announced its upcoming performances, April 30 - May 11, 2014. Details below!

Jeremy Kushnier, Beth Kirkpatrick, & Drew Aber rehearse with Josh Freilich for the upcoming concert of brand-new nerd songs by the geekiest new writers. They're all getting ready for serious fan-dom and nerdtastic jubilation at 'Un-Ironically Enthusiastic' on Saturday May 3 at 7pm, at the Laurie Beechman Theatre on 42nd and 9th Ave in Times Square. Showcasing the talent of geeky writers from the new-composer cliques, hosted by fangirl Dana Aber (Big Thunder Productions), and featuring rad performers of the famous variety: Broadway's Jeremy Kushnier (Footloose, Next to Normal, Jesus Christ Super Star) as badboy Tony Stark, Leenya Rideout (War Horse, Cyrano de Bergerac, Company) as comicbook-nerd grown-up, and Drew Aber (Tale of Two Cities) as a Pikachu devotee, VH1's Jarvis Derrell (#shehashadit), youtube sensation BrentalFloss's Brent Black, NYMF's Next Broadway Sensation Erica Lustig (Hair nat'l tour), Beth Kirkpatrick (Les Mis nat'l tour), Verse Academy's Frantz Jerome, Blackie O-Nasty, Joseph Spitale, Drew Cotton, JP Moraga, Avery Royal, Jennifer Simpson, and Long-Island Wookiee Louis Nunez. Keep your gamer headsets tuned to the common channel, they're queueing up for a MEGABLITZ Saturday May 3 at 7pm!

BEAUTIFUL's Daniel Torres performed 'Cry Me a River' at Broadway Sessions on April 10th, 2014. Check it out below!