BACKSTAGE BABBLE AT STUDIO 54: TOPS WITH FLOPS Not every musical is a hit, and some barely get a chance to stumble before vanishing into obscurity. The midtown Manhattan nightclub 54 Below h…
DIANNE REEVES' WITH LOVE RECEIVED WITH LOVE If Grammy-winning singer Dianne Reeves' suitcase could talk (and I'm guessing that it can't), it would tell tales of trekking all over the world f…
EVERYTHING TO GAINES AND NOTHING TO LOSE No, he doesn't sing "My Funny Valentine" in his entertaining show called Love Is in the Air on the night before Valentine's Day at Green Room 42 (rep…
A COLORFUL, KINETIC AND PUPPET-FILLED POW Emilio's A Million Chameleons at Soho Playhouse offers family-friendly, fabulously frenzied fun. Like many offerings aimed at, or at least semi-targ…
Here are three releases that celebrate songwriters, each from a long-careered, stylish female singer. Karen Mason mines the oeuvre of the team of John Kander and Fred Ebb. Including selectio…
If you walk through Manhattan's theatre district, you pass locations of theaters owned by a man who wrote many shows (music, lyrics, book) and directed, produced, and often performed in them…
Reviews of new theatre and cabaret recordings.
Let's start with a recent Off-Broadway cast recording of a show that takes on religion, relationships, and right wing propaganda. Then it's love's ups and downs taking center stage for two s…
Maybe the musical Lucky Stiff wasn't enormously lucky the first time around, managing only 15 performances in its 1988 Off-Broadway debut, but it has continued to pop up over the years aroun…
There's a place for a glib, undemanding, unpretentious old-school musical comedy that seeks to entertain and just wants to make someone happy. "Make Someone Happy" was the big song that came…
Reviews of three new cast recordings.
Reviews of albums from Stephen Pasquale & John Pizzarelli, Jan Cronin, Judy Whitmore, and Andy Pratt.
Reviews of cast recordings from Guys and Dolls, Wild About You, Walking with Bubbles, and The New Peggy.
I've been doing a deep dive into songs by Stephen Sondheim lately, gorging on the new recording of Merrily We Roll Along, and then, wanting more, I went merrily scavenging through my "waitin…
"New York, New York" OBC, Matthew Scott, "Other Lives", and Chloé Jean album reviews.
Two "Anything Goes" albums from JAY Records.
A Collective Cy: Jeff Harner Sings Cy Coleman and "Harmony" OBC cast recording reviewed.
New album reviews: "Lewberger: The Wizard of Friendship," Fanny Brice: Rare and Unreleased Recordings, and "The Flasher!" soundtrack.
"New York, New York" OBC, Matthew Scott, "Other Lives", and Chloé Jean album reviews.
Reviews of newly released albums: Eleri Ward; Legends of Broadway and Vaudeville; Chet Baker Blue Room.
et's open our minds and ears to alternate versions of classic musicals as presented in cast recordings: Camelot's recently opened revival and a complete South Pacific with a studio cast from…
Rob reviews the new OBC cast recordings for "Shucked" and "KPOP."
... Laurie Winer sees many sides to the icon, with her own eyes wide open rather than with myopic wide-eyed fandom, and with the advantage of 20/20 hindsight fueled by modern-day perspectiv…
Now we give due appreciation to duos"with a retrospective of the oeuvre of a long-standing, outstanding songwriting twosome, and then it's time for spare pairings of one singer accompanied b…
Reviews of new Funny Girl cast recording, A Beautiful Noise OBC recording, plus Harry Connick Jr.'s newest holiday album, and The Skivvies' Sleigh My Name.