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Singer-pianist Steven Lowenthal has been a highly-visible presence on the piano bar scene for over three-and-a-half decades, and yet has always been something of an enigma. Known not only for playing every song by ear but having a dazzlingly-vast repertoire of nearly any and every musical style and thousands of songs therein, Lowenthal as a musician has always displayed utter confidence and showmanship. But Lowenthal as a person has never, until now, been particularly forthcoming about his past, or what led him to the piano bars of New York.

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The word "glee" has been bandied about quite a bit over the last season in pop culture, most probably because of the groundbreaking series of the same name on the Fox Network, which has made household names of Jane Lynch, Matthew Morrison, Jonathan Groff, Lea Michele and Chris Colfer, among others. It therefore, must have seemed a natural step for writer/composer/lyricist John Gregor and the Prospect Theater Company to name his latest musical opus With Glee, as a means of capitalizing on this new phenomenon.

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Like so many million other schoolchildren from New York in the 1970s, your humble writer and his siblings would race home every day to watch "The Magic Garden," the daily half-hour TV show presented by co-hostesses Carole Demas and Paula Janis on WPIX-TV Channel 11; therein, the two took their throng of youthful spectators through a magical thirty minutes of song, stories, short plays, lessons about the world, and such characters as Sherlock the pink squirrel and Flapper the bird (both given virtual life by the great puppeteer Cary Antebi) as well as journeys with the Storybox, the Chucklepatch, and the Magic Tree growing lollipop sticks.

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For nearly the last two decades, songstress Perry Payne has retained a most interesting reputation in the cabaret arena; she's a true Southern belle by birth in Lynchburg, VA, a champion real estate agent by day, and a top-notch entertainer by night. And she proved all beyond compare in her most recent annual turn at the Metropolitan Room. Directed by perennial Broadway mainstay and international theatre star Evan Pappas, and backed musically by Michael Rice on piano, Ray Kilday on bass, Steve Bartosik on drums and the truly sensational Amy Hamilton Soto on violin, Payne once again comes up swinging, as always.

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Australian chanteur Darren Williams, who has spent the last several seasons delighting audiences both in mainstream theatrical productions in his homeland and on cruise ships, recently brought his one-man show and Peter Allen tribute, Not the Boy Next Door, to the Metropolitan Room. While the hour might occasionally smack of being a tad too glitzy and over-the-top, for the most part Williams isn't merely captivating, but paints an absolutely glorious love letter to the late great composer and showman.

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It seems inconceivable at times that the openly-gay male vocal trio known as Gotham was once not merely one of the single bestselling cabaret acts on the globe, playing to sold out houses at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Country Cousin in London and the Wadsworth Theatre in Los Angeles, besides such 1970s hotbeds of the New York club scene as Reno Sweeney, the Bottom Line and the Grand Finale, as well as aboard RSVP cruise lines and recording several albums, but that besides their remarkable harmonies and rapport both on-stage and off, they stuck with it as a team for nearly two decades…until life intervened and they had to call it quits.

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As in seasons past, the 66th Annual Theatre World Awards once again clings to the traditions first set in motion by founder John Willis decades ago, in which a dozen thespians receive the esteemed honor of being cited for their impressive New York debuts either on or Off-Broadway, as bestowed by previous winners. One of the most notable attributes of this season's proceedings, however, was that the ceremony managed to come in at more than a half hour before the scheduled end-time, which is certainly due largely to the technical skill and proficiency of director Barry Keating, as well as the charm and personality of host Peter Filichia. And as such, it proved an afternoon not soon forgotten by any of the assembled throng.