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HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: If you want cabaret that doesn’t just sweetly tickle your ear or wash over you like a gentle shower, welcome to the worthy-of-celebrating tidal wave and earthquake that is Billie Roe. Her time-machine trip to the past (a grittier NYC in 1978) is not a cozy glide past the corner of Nostalgia Avenue and Memory Lane where things are sugar-coated by foggy fondness for the good old daze. Rather, it’s a roller coaster that makes you feel ALIVE. Like in the song she sings about the denizens having a life underground being alive and awake, this show is the caffeinated kick that’s the Red Bull of cabaret with a Jack Daniels chaser. It’s New York Underground. MetroStar Talent Challenge winner Billie Roe blasts off fearlessly, takes risks that pay off, and blazes and amazes.

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                                                                                                                                           Dressed in a well-cut tuxedo, and sporting a short-cropped hairstyle, Jessica Walker has the appearance of a handsomely feminine male youth. It’s a fitting image for The Girl I Left Behind Me, her exploration of male impersonators that she wrote with her director, Neil Bartlett. Unfortunately, while the history she unveils is often fascinating, her performance is not as engaging.

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                                                                                            Rebecca Luker describes her relationship to the music of Jerome Kern as “love at first note.” The three-time Tony-nominated actress (for Mary Poppins, The Music Man, and the Kern-penned Show Boat) has a voice that seems particularly suited to the melodies of the prolific composer, affectionately known as the father of American musical theater.

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                                                      Sometimes it only takes one song –or just a few bars of one—to KNOW. My brain went “ZING!” when I first heard the commanding Devin Bing. He was in a showcase at Metropolitan Room where he’ll be appearing this Frida,y May 10 in one of his monthly gigs there with his band. Devin Bing and The Secret Service will keep the spring and summer ULTRA COOL. Their blend of hip, jazzy sly and slinky music often infused with (but not confused by) energized force is as appealing as the mix of fierce and/or fun original songs with the standards of yore given new coats of musical paint: lusty, lush, languid or mellow-melancholy-melisma-melting. Stir well and serve. 

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                                                                                                                                                     Sometimes it only takes one song –or just a few bars of one—to KNOW. My brain went “ZING!” when I first heard the commanding Devin Bing. He was in a showcase at Metropolitan Room where he’ll be appearing this Frida,y May 10 in one of his monthly gigs there with his band. Devin Bing and The Secret Service will keep the spring and summer ULTRA COOL. Their blend of hip, jazzy sly and slinky music often infused with

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                                                               Here's our reviewers look at Molly Ringwald's show, based on her new CD, which played Iridium NYC in early May....    Molly Ringwald astonishes: movie star with real acting chops, accomplished author, jazz singer with style and grace, she does it all and I say , "Wow!"  Tall ,thin and stunning with her famous shock of red hair and gazillion-watt smile, Molly charms,disarms and wraps us all up in her unique engaging way. 

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On April 8, the Onassis Cultural Center of New York and Jazz at Lincoln Center presented saxophonist/vocalist Dimitri Vassilakis and his band.  There was quite a big crowd at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola for a Monday night,

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                                                                                                                               There are pictures missing from several of the frames that hang suspended in the air on invisible walls. This clever component of Brian Prather’s set design for The Memory Show – presented by Transport Group at The Duke on West 42 Street under Joe Calarco’s direction – serves as a telling metaphor for the early onset of Alzheimer’s in this slender yet engaging new musical.

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                                                                                                                Mark Nadler's unbridled enthusiasm for the music and historical circumstances surrounding Weimar-era cabaret is a joy to behold. In his solo musical revue I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Musik from the Weimar and Beyond, his face positively lights up as he describes the songwriters he so admires and sings a range of material either from the period or heavily influenced by it.

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                                                                                Bonnie Sher, with her deep, husky voice and fiery spirit, turned the Hoover on high at Stage 72 at The Triad and swept us all up in her rich, compelling performance. Her show is about the moments in her life and each section is arranged to highlight the great, the not so terrific, the love and the last moments. She artfully selects and places the songs in a running order made to both tell a story and put her