Stephen Sorokoff News

There was a unique gathering of friends last night at Feinsteins. The room was packed with FRIENDS of Jamie deRoy. FRIENDS of Jamie the Broadway Producer, FRIENDS of Jamie the singer/actor, FRIENDS of Jamie the TV host, and FRIENDS of Jamie from every segment of show business. They came to enjoy another addition (20th year) of her award winning show Jamie deRoy & Friends.

'The Thomashefskys' were on stage again last night as Michael Tilson Thomas & the New York Philharmonic presented his acclaimed multi-media concert of the Music and Memories of Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky This years gala honored David and Sylvia Steiner as well as Tilson Thomas. Folksbiene is the sole surviving professional Yiddish Theatre in America and it preserves and adds to the legacy of Yiddish theatre, which flourished on Second Avenue and was domnated by Tilson Thomas's legendary grandparents ‘The Thomashefskys.'

These are a few of my favorite things: The Last Tuesday of every month with Terese! The Little Big Band! Billy Stritch's arrangement of Favorite Things! Nicolas King and Terese's new continual Guest Artists singing it!

A few years ago a seemingly shy 'unknown' got up at Jim Caruso's Cast Party and sang the Susan Werner song 'Movie of My Life'. She immediately went on my List of singers to follow. As Johnny Carson used to say when introducing Marilyn Maye,'All you young singers out there, listen & learn.' For her show at the Metropolitan Room Jennifer had the perfect match up with her pianist/arranger James Followell and Jered Egan on bass. Her show is aptly titled (for me) You Made Me Love You.

Host & Producer Randie Levine-Miller created a Friars Club evening that lived up to Abbot Jerry Lewis's statement 'Good Fellowship, Friendship and Fraternity form the sturdy basis that makes the Friars club what it is.'

As part of the Broadway at Birdland series on Monday, February 28, Broadway stars took time to salute the late theater critic Michael Kuchwara in 'Songs For Mike,' for the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation, raising over $40,000.

The Metropolitan Room will launch a new monthly series entitled Broadway on 22nd Street, beginning February 28. The concerts will feature IN THE HEIGHTS stars Nancy Ticotin, Ruben Flores and Doreen Montalvo. The concerts take place at 7PM, and doors open at 6:30 PM.

The Metropolitan Room will launch a new monthly series entitled Broadway on 22nd Street, beginning February 28. The concerts will feature IN THE HEIGHTS stars Nancy Ticotin, Ruben Flores and Doreen Montalvo. The concerts take place at 7PM, and doors open at 6:30 PM.

Piano legend Mike Renzi, who has arranged and played for the best, Peggy Lee, Lena Horne, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Mel Torme' (to name a few) has a sensational young singer he's working with. Nicolas King - this 19 year old has a voice and style that is a most worthy addition to the Mike Renzi stable.

Marilyn Maye brought "Her Own Kind Of Broadway" show to the Colony Hotel in Palm Beach last week. The merchants on Worth Ave. were probably complaining about a lack of shoppers during her performances-everyone seemed to be at the Colony to hear this American treasure. For this engagement she brought along her longtime friend (and birthday boy) pianist Billy Stritch.

It was the last Tuesday of the month and once again Terese charged out with her Little Big Band and Broadway was swinging. 'It Had Better Be Tonight' really took on a special meaning as her opening song, it was the mantra for the band to take off in the tradition of the Johnny Carson Tonight Show Orchestra. Add Klea Blackhurst as her guest and the mix became an intoxicating evening, taking the audience back to the days of the Rat Packs swinging Las Vegas shows.

The music of Mickey Leonard, composer and arranger cherished by the cabaret and jazz communities was presented by Karen Oberlin at the Metropolitan Room on January 22, 2011. The evening was hosted by David Hadju and Mr. Leonard's music was sung & played by a bevy of the music worlds finest. The event will also take place on February 10, at 9:30 hosted by Rex Reed. Mickey Leoanrd has written some of the most beloved standards of the Great American Songbook, such as 'Why Did I Choose You?' and 'I'm All Smiles' with lyrics by Herb Martin. He has also written with lyricists Carolyn Leigh and Marshall Barer to name a few, and he has arranged and conducted for the legendary jazz pianist Bill Evans and many others. His songs have been recorded by Barbra Streisand, Barbara Cook, Marvin Gaye, Shirley Horn, Mabel Mercer, Nancy Lamott, Joe Williams, George Shearing, Andy Williams and the list goes on.........Performers in these events will include: Joyce Breach Barbara Brussell, Ellen Bullinger, Eric Comstock & Barbara Fasano, Maud Hixson, Tanya Holt, Mickey Leonard, Pamela Luss, Marissa Mulder, Mark Murphy, Mark Nadler, Karen Oberlin, Rex Reed, Jane Scheckter, Sandy Stewart,KT Sullivan, Warren Vache, Jon Weber and special surprise guests.

Taking the stage at the Monday night Broadway at Birdland concert series was renowned folk singer/comedienne Christine Lavin.

RAISSA KATONA BENNETT BREATHING LIFE INTO KERN" AT FEINSTEIN'S THROUGH SATURDAY The singer-actress Raissa Katona Bennett shows how "actable" the music of Jerome Kern is in her delightful new show, "Can't Help Singing - The Music of Jerome Kern." Each song is a little play, and she's ready to feel every emotion as they occur, bringing us right up the emotional edge with her. At Thursday's premiere at Feinstein's at the Loews Regency, men melted and women swooned when she sang "Long Ago and Far Away," and "Why Do I Love You." An older gent exclaimed "hot dog!" several times at the end of several classics. The singers Lucy Arnaz, Karen Oberlin, Valerie Lemon and Christine Reisner were among the singers there to enjoy this show that plays through Saturday. "Can't Help Singing - The Music of Jerome Kern" is ably backed by music director Don Rebic on piano, Tom Hubbard on bass. The multi-threat actor/director/singer Eric Michael Gillett directs. After the show Bennett who was Christine on Broadway in "Phantom of the Opera," and was in the first national tours of "Cats" and "Parade," told us "Oh, I feel like I performed a two hour play in one hour!" Bennett also produces and is the 2010 Bistro Award-winning host of "The Concerts at Tudor City Greens," an outdoor series that features many of New York's most noted singers.

Klea Blackhurst returned to Birdland, her musical home, on Monday, January 10, with a fresh show of stories and songs from the American Songbook and Broadway. Jim Caruso's Cast Party, the wild open mic night that celebrates the Broadway, pop and jazz communities, followed the concert.

Cabaret Cares 5 An evening with the Cast of In the Heights.

Broadway and West End Star Amra-Faye Wright made her New York Cabaret Debut December 29th at the Metropolitan Room. Her show 'Sittin' on Top of the World' was an elegant evening of wry tales, engaging wit and sophisticated glamour. It traced Amra-Faye Wright's unlikely journey from African farm girl to Broadway leading lady-illustrated with stylish interpretations of The Great American Songbook, popular show-tunes and renditions from her native South Africa and other lands.

Terese Genecco & Her Little Big Band packed the house last night at The Iridium for another high-energy, super-charged Las Vegas-style performance. In addition to Genecco's big, swingin' vocals, the generous host welcomed friends and guest stars to join in on the fun. Producer/performer Scott Barbarino took the stage and enlisted Genecco to sing back-up vocals for him on the Dean Martin favorite 'Memories Are Made Of This' then flew solo on Genecco's signature tune 'Ain't That A Kick In The Head.'

Before anyone removes a lick of clothing in EndTimes' decidedly secular song and sketch revue, Naked Holidays, an unlikely matchup of a perky and cultured Brit (Ruthie Stephens) and a snarling Mexican heavy metaler (Alessandro Colla) leads the cast of nineteen young and attractive performers, most of whom you will see naked by the evening's end, in a brief orientation of the history of the holidays that grace our December calendars.  The sketchy reasons for the celebration of the birth of Christ occurring on December 25th, they conclude, originates from the already present pagan solstice festivals, which were loaded with drunkenness, orgies and crude comedies and spectacles.

On Tuesday, December 21, Brent Barrett took to the stage in 'Christmas Mornings', performing Christmas tunes at the Laurie Beechman Theatre in NYC.