Rebecca Kaplan - Page 16

It was a treat getting to see a glimpse of six different Broadway shows in one night, especially the ones that have since closed.

To put it mildly: I've had the time of my life at the Christina Bianco show.

It takes some suspension of disbelief to imagine Baby in the 21st century.

The entire night had a light-hearted tinge to it, even when the songs got serious.

LORNA LUFT: 70, GIRL, 70 is a celebration and retrospective of Luft's life, filled with anecdotes ranging from funny to earnest.

It was a treat to see Seth's Talent Showcase cabaret this Tuesday night at Midtown's Don't Tell Mama.

Pirates of Penzance is a charming, lightly funny musical of inconsequential plot. The New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players (NYGASP) put on a splendid production at Hunter College's Kaye Playhouse.

If Anyone Can Whistle must be a concert, please, let it be a concert like this. MasterVoices, an organization dedicated to elevating choral works, brought the show to Carnegie Hall for a one-night engagement. They masterfully adapted the show as a scaled-down concert version, dropping any bells and whistles.

Sometimes, when the stars align, cabaret can take you out of the world for a few magical hours. Tituss Burgess's glittering spectacle Take Me to the World did just that last Saturday night. He transformed the gilded stage at Carnegie Hall into a nonstop giddy celebration of Stephen Sondheim's work, culminating in a touching, understated finale.

On January 26th, Renee Katz paid tribute to Jule Styne through an evening of intimate, jazzy cabaret at Don't Tell Mama. It was a treat to hear a selection of Styne songs, ranging from very obscure to very popular, sung with Katz's full, clear voice.

The iconic pop star impressed the Jazz At Lincoln Center audience this week during his concert for The American Songbook Series

Die-hard musical theater enthusiasts and fans of opera will love the Mikado, one of Gilbert and Sullivan's strongest scores. With quick-witted and clever lyrics that satirize society, you can easily see the influence G&S's works like The Mikado had on the works of American musical theater composers Rodgers and Hart, Stephen Sondheim, and Harnick and Bock. Some of the standout numbers from the score that you're probably already familiar with (or if not, you should be) include a?oeThree Little Maids,a?? a?oeThe Flowers That Bloom in the Spring (Tra La)a?? and a?oeTit-Willow.a??

Celebrity impressions, comedy and political satire abound at Snow Business, Christine Pedi's Christmas show at Feinstein's/54 Below. Pedi had the crowd in stitches with her impersonations of Broadway stars from Patti Lupone to Liza Minelli.

Joe's Pub was filled with laughter and 'gaiety' (in both senses of the word) on Monday night at Dyke the Halls. Carolyn Bergier, host of the Dyking Out podcast, put together a truly diverse variety show line up, with performers from all types of backgrounds and performance styles. Standouts included Eman El-Husseini and Jess Salomon, a Jewish-Muslim married couple, stand up by Emma Willmann, and a downright strange but very funny burlesque number by Nyx Nocturne that played on 'All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth' with a sexy, porn-esque dentist-themed dance.

Jaime Lozano made his debut at the Green Room 42 to a packed house on Sunday November 24th. His show, Songs by an Immigrant, explored the immigrant experience through a series of songs from various points in his songwriting career.

Seeing Mark William perform feels a bit like seeing Bobby Darin or Frank Sinatra reincarnated as a young man. Williams has a boyish appearance but a deep love for the classics, and his silky smooth vocals sound like something you could have heard on the radio in the 1950s or 60s.

Trumpet icon Herb Alpert and Grammy Award-winning vocalist/producer Lani Hall return to Café Carlyle performing new and classic songs, November 19-30. At 84 years old, Herb Albert is still at the top of his game. Alpert played with the confidence of someone with nothing to prove, and nothing to gain besides the pure love of the music, and seeing his fans' faces light up. He's a jazz legend, and he's still growing as a musician, but he doesn't act like playing the old standbys is beneath him. At one point he said that he performs these concerts because a?oewhen I play the songs, it puts me in the moment of my life [when I first performed them], and it puts you back too, and it's a beautiful thing.a??

When Alice Ripley appeared onstage at the Laurie Beechman Theater, she was greeted by cheers. 'This is where I get to do whatever I want,' she told the crowd.

As techniques to explore feminist themes go, clowns don't exactly leap to mind. But Clowns Ex Machina, the team behind The Bad'uns: Clown Acts of Contagion, makes it look like a natural choice.

Eva Noblezada's cabaret act is undeniably charming. At the start of the show, an announcer noted that she was a two-time Tony Award loser. Noblezada appeared onstage laughing, and explained that she'd asked for that introduction, to set the tone of the night, that even successful performers a?oedon't have it figured outa??.