The Duplex News

A GAY SHOW FOR ALL PEOPLE! will play The Duplex on Sunday, June 15 at 9:30 p.m.

Dixon Place (Ellie Covan, Artistic Director) presents the 23rd Annual HOT!, the NYC Celebration of Queer Culture. The world's longest-running LGBTQ Performance Festival, HOT! offers theater, music, dance, puppetry, performance art and homoeroticism for the whole family! HOT! is the pioneering festival of queer performance and culture - and the oldest annual festival of its kind in the world. Dixon Place is proud the HOT! serves as the model for other queer festivals across the globe and has become a performance destination for emerging talent in the LGBTQ community. This year's HOT!, featuring hundreds of participating artists presenting their newest creations, will run July 5th through August 2nd at Dixon Place, located at 161A Chrystie Street in New York City.

'NCIS: Los Angeles' star and Broadway veteran Barrett Foa (Mamma Mia!, Avenue Q, ...Spelling Bee) will begin performances as Alex More in the smash hit comedy Buyer & Cellar tonight, May 27, 2014 at the Barrow Street Theatre (27 Barrow Street). For the past five seasons, Barrett Foa has co-starred opposite LL Cool J and Chris O'Donnell as tech geek Eric Beale on CBS' top-rated hit series 'NCIS: Los Angeles' which is currently the #2 show on television.

Veteran actress /comedian Angela Scott brings her funny friends William Stephenson (FX Networks 'Louie') and Rhonda 'Passion' Hansome ('Saturday Night Live') to the legendary Duplex cabaret-theater in Manhattan's West Village for a night of laughs tonight, May 22, 2014.

Pittsburgh CLO presents the rousing musical hit Ring of Fire, which will run today, May 22 through August 17 at the CLO Cabaret.

Stearns Matthews is a three-time MAC Award nominee in three different categories (Best Male Debut, 2009; Best Male Vocalist, 2011; Best Musical Comedy Performer, 2013), has appeared twice at the Mabel Mercer Foundation's Annual Cabaret Convention at Jazz at Lincoln Center, and was the first-ever first runner-up in the Metropolitan Room's MetroStar Talent Challenge in 2008

Singer/songwriter Ruth Carlin returns to the Laurie Beechman Theater this spring with an illuminating exploration of the eclectic repertoire of iconic folkie turned cabaret favorite, Judy Collins. 'A Light in the Window - Songs of Judy Collins.' Performances are tonight, May 17th at 7:30pm and June 12th at 7pm.

Micah CcCain - the creative talent behind viral internet sensation 'Bonjour Girl' and his sold-out, critic's pick cabaret debut 'HEY GURL!' and his sold-out, critic's pick cabaret 'BROADWAY CREDITS' - is set to perform two encore performances of 'Broadway Credits!' live at The Duplex Cabaret tonight, May 16th, 2014.

Veteran actress /comedian Angela Scott brings her funny friends William Stephenson (FX Networks 'Louie') and Rhonda 'Passion' Hansome ('Saturday Night Live') to the legendary Duplex cabaret-theater in Manhattan's West Village for a night of laughs on Thursday, May 22, 2014.

PAN ASIAN REPERTORY THEATRE will present a special limited run of NO-NO BOY by Ken Narasaki, directed by Ron Nakahara and based on the novel by John Okada, set in the aftermath of WWII as Japanese Americans return to the West Coast. Called 'eloquent...elegant and searing' by LA Weekly, NO-NO BOY will run from today, May 14-18, 2014 at the Studio Theatre at Theatre Row (410 W. 42nd Street), with official opening on May 15 at 7:30PM.

Celebrating its fifth anniversary, New York-based chamber music ensemble SHUFFLE Concert has launched its first Composition Competition to take place during its upcoming 2014 - 2015 season. Open to national and international composers ages 18 and up, the competition is for works of 5 to 7 minutes in length in one of two categories: Original Compositions and Arrangements. New York City audiences will have the opportunity to hear the winning works, which will be premiered live in concert in early 2015.

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.

MAC nominee, Jim Speake brings back his acclaimed show celebrating the music of Broadway composer, Cy Coleman: 'I'm A Brass Band, Jim Speake Sings Cy Coleman at the Duplex'. The show is directed by Lennie Watts with musical direction by Steven Ray Watkins, featuring the SRW band.

MAC nominee, Jim Speake brings back his acclaimed show celebrating the music of Broadway composer, Cy Coleman: 'I'm A Brass Band, Jim Speake Sings Cy Coleman at the Duplex.' The show is directed by Lennie Watts with musical direction by Steven Ray Watkins, featuring the SRW band.

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).

54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents Corinna Sowers-Adler in "By Request - New York Moments" on Tuesday, May 6, 2014 at 9:30pm. In her 54 BELOW debut, Corinna continues the "By Request" series with a very special show including songs and the memories and special moments behind why that song has been inspirational or life changing, all containing the theme of New York City.

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.

54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents Corinna Sowers-Adler in 'By Request - New York Moments' tonight, May 6, 2014 at 9:30pm. In her 54 BELOW debut, Corinna continues the 'By Request' series with a very special show including songs and the memories and special moments behind why that song has been inspirational or life changing, all containing the theme of New York City.

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:

Amidst its bustling spring calendar, Clear Space Theatre Company is set to welcome back three former members of their Acting Company for a one night only performance. Schyler Conaway, Michael Matthias, and Dana Peragallo, who all relocated from Sussex County to New York City nearly two years ago, will take to the Clear Space stage on Saturday, May 10th.