By Marilyn Lester . . . . In the words of W.S. Gilbert, librettist-lyricist of the comic opera, The Pirates of Penzance: "Oh, joy! Oh. rapture!" If audience reaction is anything to go by, th…
Once upon a time the great Duke Ellington designated the equally great Ella Fitzgerald as "beyond category," an honor to be used sparingly. So while she's widely known now as "The Marvelous …
The costumes, the scenery, the makeup, the props…" so go the lyrics to Irvig Berlin's "There's No Business Like Show Business" (Annie Get Your Gun). It's all there and very much more in Th…
Anyone who's read the source material for the IT franchise knows the 1986 Stephen King book was unrelentingly terrifying. Less so by a smidge were the film adaptations"a 1990 television mini…
By Marilyn Lester***If ever a performer was born to the stage, it's actor-singer Marilyn Maye, dubbed the "Marvelous." To that we'd gladly add "magnificent," "mind-blowing" and "magical." Sh…
Having known a couple of opera divas in our time, be assured that the (former) lyric soprano, Amanda Reckonwith, who triumphed in her return to the stage at Pangea, after a 25-year absence, …
Teenage love is complicated at the best of times. When it happens during war the stakes are beyond imagining. Such is the setting of This Beautiful Future, playing at the Off-Broadway Cherry…
Not only do Evangaline Johns and Ariana Johns share a surname, by virtue of DNA they are also mother and daughter"as well as a duo of certifiable charm and talent. How delightful that they'v…
Actress Ann Talman is no stranger to the stage as a gifted monologist. Talman is also an award-winning documentary filmmaker and a four-time Broadway vet, so she knows her way around storyte…
Could it be possible that the wondrous Karen Mason could outdo herself on the cabaret stage? Anyone present for her recent triumph at Broadway at Birdland with 30…and Counting would have t…
Possibly the only "down side" of singer-songwriter-pianist Tony DeSare is that he doesn't appear in New York City often enough. Pandemic not withstanding, it's been quite a while since this …
For 14 years, the Broadway Rising Stars concert, created, written, directed and hosted by Scott Siegel for The Town Hall, has been presenting new talent, most often fresh from their course o…
The long-awaited musical, Love Quirks, has finally opened at the AMT theater after a dozen years of fits and starts, which included the now all too familiar pandemic pause. A kind of take on…
To write about singer Sandy Stewart is not so much to review her as it is to acknowledge a bona fide master class in the art of vocal performance. The same can be said of the two musicians w…
From the moment singer-songwriter and recording artist Ty Stephens opened his show Standard Tyme at Birdland Theater with a slow, evocative opener of "Round Midnight" (Thelonius Monk, Thelma…
In 2020, singer-songwriter Peggy Lee would have turned 100. To celebrate, KT Sullivan and The Mabel Mercer Foundation were going to honor the icon at its annual concert at Carnegie Hall's We…
Actress-singer Ann Kittredge has developed a habit"and that is of putting together cabaret shows that seem to just get better and better. Her latest, reIMAGINE, celebrated her debut CD of th…
If you subscribe to the notion that "there are no accidents" then Scott Evan Davis clearly had a destiny: to become a writer of songs with pleasing melodies and deeply realized lyrics. At th…
Who could resist an invitation from Madelaine Warren to reconvene after a pandemic-induced hiatus from live performance? In her new show, Invitation, at the Laurie Beechman Theatre, many del…
Drawing mostly from his latest CD, Early Blue Evening, award-winning jazz composer, arranger and saxophonist, Andy Farber, brought his orchestra to Birdland Jazz Club for an early evening of…
Back in 1977, Elizabeth Swados' Nightclub Cantata premiered at the now defunct, but legendary Village Gate, with a rave review from equally legendary New York Times critic, Clive Barnes. The…
Vocalist and soprano sax-master, Danny Bacher, is one of those performers who truly loves what he does, and it shows in his every performance. Versatile and multi-talented, this outing at Pa…
Broadway triple-threat, T. Oliver Reid can always be depended on to deliver plenty of polish and great satisfaction in his cabaret shows. A Sunday Kind of Love on Valentine's Eve at Birdland…
Cabaret tribute shows can be tricky"the task is for the creator to find a balance between inhabiting the persona of the honoree while maintaining an identity of self. In Dawn Derow Sings Eyd…
In the way that royalty is preceded by a fanfare, the entrance of Norm Lewis on the Carnegie Hall Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage was ushered in by the majestic sound of The New York Pops, u…