Peggy Lee News

Hollywood's legendary El Capitan Theatre will present Disney's animated classic “Lady and the Tramp” February 13-19 2015, it was announced today by Lylle Breier, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Special Events for Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. This special engagement is exclusively at the El Capitan Theatre.

As the days dwindled down to a precious few in 2014, a few cabaret goers and performers in what is affectionately but also self-mockingly called the “cabaret community” would sidle up and ask if I was planning my annual end-of-the year “Best Of” column, similar to the “Top 20 Bests and Favorites” piece over the first half of the year I posted back in early July. I would respond in the negative with very reasonable and believable excuses, but the truth is I didn't want to reveal my “Bests” of the year until the voting for the 2014 BroadwayWorld New York Cabaret Awards had ended. There's enough baggage and backstage whispering that comes with administering the BWW Awards, so I wasn't about to publish any opinions that might influence the vote while it was in process. I may be crazy but I'm not masochistic. But now all bets are off. You want lists? I'll give you lists.

Stacy Sullivan will reprise 'On the Air,' honoring the legacy of of Marian McPartland, harmonic genius and composer, who created 'Piano Jazz,' the longest running cultural program in the history of National Public Radio. The show will play one show only at Metropolitan Room on Friday, January 16th at 9:30pm. BroadwayWorld brings you a first look at the show below!

2013 MetroStar winner and Kansas native, Lauren Stanford, made her solo cabaret debut last summer with I'm a Stranger Here Myself. For one special encore performance, I'm a Stranger Here Myself will be presented on February 1st at 1:00pm at The Metropolitan Room. The show explores New York City's enduring lure through songs made popular by small town women such as Helen Morgan, Mary Martin, Julie Wilson, Peggy Lee and more. Directed by Eric Michael Gillett with Music Direction by Mike Pettry.

The Cleveland POPS Orchestra with conductor Carl Topilow will salute the Academy Awards for Music at Severance Hall on Friday February 6, 2015. The first half of the two-hour concert starts at 8:00 p.m. and will feature musical selections representing each of the eight decades in which songs and original scores for movies have been recognized by the Academy. The audience will experience, in order of decade, music from The Wizard of Oz (30's), Sea Hawk (40's), Ben Hur (50's) The Graduate (60's), The Godfather (70's), Amadeus (80's), Titanc (90's), and Lord of the Rings (00's). The second hour of the evening will feature a wide selection of songs and scores that were in contention for, but did not win the coveted golden statue - including Chicago, Mamma Mia, Jersey Boys, Les Miserables, West Side Story, West Side Story, My Fair Lady, Mary Poppins, and more.

Stacy Sullivan, will reprise 'On the Air,' honoring the legacy of of Marian McPartland, harmonic genius and composer, who created 'Piano Jazz,' the longest running cultural program in the history of National Public Radio. The show will play one show only at Metropolitan Room tonight, January 16th at 9:30pm.

The Cleveland POPS Orchestra with conductor Carl Topilow will salute the Academy Awards for Music at Severance Hall on Friday, February 6, 2015.

What do you get when you mix an internationally-acclaimed impersonator, outrageous comedy, great standards, and a bevy of icons? The hysterical parody of Judy Garland and her guests found in Michael Holmes' riotous The Judy Show!

Katrina Leskanich will be hitting the road in North America this spring in support of her latest solo album entitled Blisland (Listen to Blisland streaming via Popmatters), her first solo offering in 10 years.

The Crazy Coqs has announced is February 2015 program at the Brasserie Zedel, Piccadilly, London W1, featuring: Purdy (February 3,4 & 5); Phil Ryan (February 6 & 7); Jeff Harnar & KT Sullivan (February 10-14); Anne Reid & Stefan Bednarczyk (February 17-21); and Liliane Montevecchi (February 24-28).

The Musical Theater Project celebrates the 75th anniversary year of The Wizard of Oz by saluting the composer behind the music in "Over the Rainbow: The Songs of Harold Arlen," to be presented at Cuyahoga Community College's Eastern Campus Performing Arts Center on Sunday, January 18, 2015 at 3pm.

Join Perth sextet The Darling Buds of May in a celebration of the life and music of Miss Peggy Lee. With a recording and performing career spanning 6 decades, Peggy Lee was one of the most successful and prolific singers of the 20th century.

Stacy Sullivan, will reprise 'On the Air," honoring the legacy of of Marian McPartland, harmonic genius and composer, who created "Piano Jazz," the longest running cultural program in the history of National Public Radio. The show will play one show only at Metropolitan Room on Friday, January 16th at 9:30pm.

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.

On Monday December 22 the terribly amusing song stylist Cortes Alexander presented his annual Swell Noel to an uber packed house at Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal. Alexander has such frenetic energy and charm that, and I've said this before, you just want to wrap him up. What a joyous Christmas present...and with his two glorious backup singers, the Swell Girls Melissa Bailey and Julie Gar

Birdland Jazz Club has announced its end-of-year schedule, running December 31 - January 18, including: The Birdland Big Band featuring Jane Monheit on New Year's Eve, Dave Stryker Group, Barbara Carroll, Joe Lovano, and more!

Birdland Jazz Club has announced its January 2015 schedule, featuring The Birdland Big Band, Jane Monheit, Beegie Adair Trio, Barbara Carroll, Jay Leonhart Trio, Jim Caruso's Cast Party, Dena DeRose, Lindsay Mendez and Marco Paguia, and MORE!

The TexARTS Cabaret Series presents A Cool Yule, a celebration of the iconic holiday music made famous by Andy William, Nat King Cole, Peggy Lee and current artists such as Sugarland, Brian Setzer, Tony Bennett, Ceelo Green and more!

'Merry Christmas Darling: Carpenters' Christmas,' a tribute to popular '70s music group The Carpenters, will bring the group's popular holiday tracks at the Suncoast Showroom this weekend, December 13 and 14.

Karen Mason, acclaimed vocalist and Broadway veteran, is bringing her one-woman show Secrets of the Ancient Divas to the Haft Theater at FIT today, December 12 at 2pm. Produced by Healing Arts Initiative (HAI) and co-sponsored by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Ms. Mason will pay homage to her personal idols, performing the songs of such iconic singers as Judy Garland, Peggy Lee, Barbra Streisand and more.