After performing two sold-out shows in mid-January that garnered rave reviews from New York cabaret critics, Pamela Lewis (a.k.a. Champagne Pam), again brings her unique interpretation of Long Island icon Billy Joel's songbook to the New York's Metropolitan Room (34 West 22nd Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues) on Saturday, March 7 at 7 pm. In New York State of Mind: The Songs of Billy Joel, you'll hear the 2013 BroadwayWorld New York Cabaret Award Winner for 'Best Female Vocalist' deliver unique and stirring interpretations of classic Joel songs such as, 'The Stranger,' 'My Life,' 'A Matter of Trust,' 'Just the Way You Are,' 'New York State of Mine,' and many more beloved Joel hits.
Pamela Lewis (a.k.a. Champagne Pam), the 2013 BroadwayWorld New York Cabaret Award winner for "Best Female Vocalist" (for her show Daddy's Little Girl), performed her new solo cabaret show, New York State of Mind: The Songs of Billy Joel, in front of a rowdy, revved-up, packed house at the Metropolitan Room on Friday and Saturday, January 16 and 17. The singer with champagne-colored streaks in her long brown hair, Lewis embodies cool. And hot. She's a brassy chick from Long Island who knows who she is and she wants to party with you. In this show, she celebrates her roots, singing the songs of another Long Islander she grew up loving, first for his tuneful pop melodies and later for his words. It's cool when a woman sings an entire show of songs written by a man, doesn't fear using the "wrong" pronouns, and puts her own spin on them by changing the feel, the tempo, and the arrangements. Pamela Lewis does all that with verve and then some in this show.
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.
Composer-Lyricist-Bookwriter Mary Liz McNamara is currently working on Body and Soul based on the 2009 documentary by filmmaker Alice Elliott. Excerpts from Body and Soul were seen at New York Theater Barn in October 2014. Awards: 2013 Bistro Award for Songwriting, 2011 BMI Foundation Harrington Award for creative achievement in musical theater, two MAC awards and six ASCAP PLUS awards. Mary Liz is a frequent NYC performer, and her songs are performed by cabaret and musical theater artists across the country. She is a member of the BMI Musical Theater Workshop (as a composer/lyricist and a librettist), and about a million other performing arts unions and organizations. Her song 'Bacon' was used in an episode of 'So You Think You Can Dance.'
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.
Pamela Lewis (a.k.a. 'Champagne Pam'), winner of the 2013 BroadwayWorld.com New York Cabaret Award as 'Best Female Vocalist,' has announced that her new show, New York State of Mind: The Songs of Billy Joel, will open at the Metropolitan Room (34 West 22nd Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues) on January 16 and 17, with both shows at 7 pm.
The day is finally here! After one month of voting on preliminary nominees in 17 categories, the results of more than 5,000 ballots were considered along with the selections of BroadwayWorld's cabaret section editors to determine the final nominees for the 2014 BroadwayWorld.com New York Cabaret Awards. Joining cabaret icon Marilyn Maye with four nominations is budding star Carole J. Bufford, who made the final ballot for two different shows during 2014 and as 'Best Female Vocalist' and 'Performer of the Year.' Among Maye's nominations were 'Performer of the Year,' two shows in the 'Best Celebrity Show' category, and a 'Best Director' nomination for her work with jazz singer Gabrielle Stravelli (who received two nominations). In addition to her usual nod for 'Best Jazz Vocalist,' jazz star Jane Monheit received two other nominations as 'Performer of the Year,' and as 'Best Host' for her new variety show at Birdland, Jane Monheit's Jazz Party (Monheit also co-starred with Clint Holmes in another nominated show, Frank Wildhorn and Friends in the 'Best Revue' category.) Eric Michael Gillett also earned three nominations for 'Best Show, Male,' 'Best Male Vocalist,' and 'Best Director.'
After successful shows at Judy's Chelsea and Don't Tell Mama, Jennifer Roberts is back to celebrate her love for Manhattan with two new shows at New York hotspot 'Don't Tell Mama.' New Musical Director Tedd Firth will join Jennifer along with returning bass player Ritt Henn.
The Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs has announced the 3rd Annual "MAC presents THEY WRITE THE SONGS." The show will be held Sunday, November 16th at 4pm in the Engelman Recital Hall at the Baruch Performing Arts Center (Lexington Avenue at 25th Street).
The 25th New York Cabaret Convention first night titled 'I Love A Piano' was held at Rose Hall at Jazz at Lincoln Center last night and BroadwayWorld was there backstage and out front!
Coming up this week, 54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz and beyond. To purchase tickets or for more information, visit www.54Below.com or call (646) 476-3551.
Since I attended more than 50 shows over the past eight months (a few more than once)--the large majority of which were reviewed on these web pages—I felt I had more than enough cabaret show inventory to present my second-annual “Mid-Year Cabaret Review” citing the “20 Best Cabaret Shows and Performances” for the first half of 2014. Since the eligibility period for 2014 BroadwayWorld New York Cabaret Award consideration begins with shows staged since last November (late October if it was the first of a run), I've included a few of those late 2013 shows in this group. And with the announcement of the BWW Award nominees just four months away, I've offered some projections on the Award categories for which these shows very well might receive consideration.
NiCori Studios and Productions in association with Oakeside Bloomfield Cultural Center announces a new installment of the monthly concert series, 'Music at the Mansion', on Sunday, March 23, at 3pm. Performers include Fran Leonardis, Christian Fabian and Lauren Fox & Ritt Henn. The featured performer in the 'Young Musician Moment' will be Elizabeth Nucci.
Lauren Fox, one of the more multifaceted and ambitious young stars of the New York cabaret scene, seems intent on redefining what is already a pretty open-ended art form. The recent run of her new duo show at Stage 72 with bass player Ritt Henn, Ghosts of Love: Songs from the Reel World of David Lynch (January 9, 18, 23, and 24) was the most recent example of Ms. Fox's unconventional approach to a 70-80 minute nightclub show and the result was operatic film noir--cabaret style.
Last December, after I posted my list of the Best Cabaret Performers of 2012, I followed up my original 'listmania' with a column that served as a way to include some 'honorable mentions,' basically a recognition of other memorable shows and performances of songs that were striking, unique, and/or original that year. The column received a positive response so I thought I'd wheel it out again this year. So as the hours tick away on 2013 and we anticipate the coming of a new year, here is an addendum to the 2013 New York Cabaret Performers of the Year--a totally random list of 30 Honorable Mentions of the 'Best' and 'Most' in Cabaret for 2013 . . . mainly because I can and it's fun. Enjoy and Happy New Year!
n this space back in mid-July, BroadwayWorld.com New York cabaret reviewer Stephen Hanks offered up his list of the Best New York Cabaret Performances for the first half of 2013. Now, here is his list of the performers he feels were the best and most exciting in cabaret this year.
If you're wondering whether or not 2013 was a fantastic year for the cabaret art form in New York, all you have to do is scan the amazing list of nominees for this year's BroadwayWorld New York Cabaret Awards and you'll know it was one of the best ever. So now it's time for all you cabaret performers and fans to vote for the best singers, musicians, songs, and shows of the year. Voting will continue until Sunday night January 5 and the winners will be announced later that week. We hope that all the winners will be able to perform in the Award show on Sunday night February 23 at Joe's Pub.
It turns out that when it came to Tanya Moberly cabaret shows and this reviewer, the third time was the charm. After being blown away by Moberly's powerful voice and stage presence when I first caught her one-song performances at the Sunday Salon Open Mics three years ago, I wasn't crazy about either of her full-blown cabaret shows the past two years (Tanya Moberly Sings Di Franco/Tanya Moberly Sings Jonatha Brooke in 2011 and Tanya Lorraine Moberly Sings Barbra Joan Streisand in 2012—in spite of her receiving MAC and BroadwayWorld.com Best Female Vocalist nominations for the latter). But her new show that opened this past Friday and Saturday nights at Don't Tell Mama, I Love New York Songwriters, pressed many of my cabaret buttons—in a good way. While there were still some minor flaws—owing to a certain stubbornness in her approach to a cabaret show—this eclectic set of original songs written by some of the city's best “unknown” composers was consistently entertaining. In this particular show, Ms. Moberly was Tanya Terrific.
In cabaret, there are variety shows and there are VARIETY shows. Going on close to three years as a reviewer and attending a myriad of these affairs that can range in feel from Ed Sullivan to the Gong Show, I no longer have much patience for the lower case version. But every once in a while there's a multi-performer extravaganza that screams capital letters. It turns out that MAC-Award winning singer Lauren Fox has acquired the knack for staging 'Big V' variety shows because they are all about the themes, the stories, and the music, and not about the performers. And wouldn't you know it? With the egos being upstaged by everyone's joy and passion for the project, everybody wins . . . especially the audience. That was the case last night at 54 Below with the Fox produced 'One Night of Peace & Music: A Tribute to Woodstock.'
Coming up this week, 54 BELOW, the performance venue located just below the legendary Studio 54 at 254 West 54th Street, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz and beyond. 54 Below also launched its series of late night events. Joining Tuesday nights' popular 'Backstage' with Susie Mosher is 15:54, and more:
