Milton Drake News

RACHAEL & VILRAY come to Boulder Theater, Sunday, July 11, 2021. Tickets on sale on Friday, May 21 at 10am.

At the top of her show, SEE JANE SING!, Jane Lynch jokes that she always wanted to be the kind of TV celebrity that held an audience hostage for an hour as she dabbled in the art of cabaret. Luckily for us, deft comedienne Lynch surprises the audience by being a fantastic singer, leaving the audience begging her for more encores.

On July 5, Carole J. Bufford erupted onto the stage at Birdland for her first Sunday evening as hostess of the club's weekly Jazz Party (which had been helmed most recently by Natalie Douglas and Jane Monheit). The formidable vocalist, glamorous in clingy red, was aided and abetted by a top-notch (also well dressed—Bravo!) quartet featuring Joel Frahm on sax, Ray Marchia on drums, Tom Hubbard on bass, and Musical Director Ian Herman on piano. Special guests for Bufford's inaugural session were Janelle Velasquez and Lianne Marie Dobbs. With Bufford's audacious performance, smart choices, and attention to detail, Sundays promise to be a great deal more fun in midtown Manhattan.

I don't know about other cabaret journalists, but I have to believe that a reviewer feels the biggest buzz (aside from when composing a really well-crafted show analysis) when he or she has been fortunate enough to observe a young performer's ascent into stardom. That's the way I felt last Wednesday night at the Metropolitan Room as I was watching Carole J. Bufford's new show, Body & Soul.