Tweet this article !

There are not many better ways to spend Thanksgiving Eve than dinner with Brian Stokes Mitchell. God was working overtime when She produced this man. The singer/actor is exactly what one would expect from a leading man: tall, handsome and high-spirited, although not vain. As we supped across the street from the Belasco Theatre (where he is starring in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown), he enthusiastically discussed his upcoming Holiday concerts with the New York Pops (as I needled him about his life) on December 10th @ 11, via Carnegie Hall. Between the premier of his "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" and highly anticipated Hanukah medley, his excitement about the project was electric. 

Tweet this article !

                                                     Slightly more than the eight nights of Chanukah and slightly shorter than the 12 days of Christmas, but without the dizzyingly spinning dreidels or the pesky partridges in precarious pear trees, this December there are ten eclectic evenings of cabaret called Holiday Cabaret Nights at Urban Stages Theatre.  It's the theatre space nestled deep into the West Side on West 30th Street (259 West 30 Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues).

Tweet this article !

                                     This week, Penny Landau, aka: The TV Junkie, interviews actress/singer Sally Kellerman, who brings her new show, Hot Lips to Cool Blues, to Metropolitan Room for two performances, December 5 and 6. Sally talked about her passion for music, Broadway, M*A*S*H and Robert Altman, all from her kitchen while cooking chicken for her husband.

Before we get into your music, I need to know something. M*A*S*H…is it the truth or just “cinema myth,” that when the tent fell on “Hot Lips” in the shower, your reaction was enhanced by Altman’s placement of a naked man, dangling in the breeze in front of you?

Tweet this article !

How long exactly does it take to become a cabaret performer in big bad NYC?  Well, I suppose the question is extraordinarily open to interpretation, especially if you take a good look around at the great variety of newbies at the gate each and every year!  But in general, most folks try their luck at some point earlier than their 60^th birthday.  Not so with folksy, friendly and fascinating entertainer Jim Speake. A week or so ago Mr. Speake and I sat for a chat on the steps of a statue in Madison Square Park, and he filled me in on how this unusual turn of events took place.

Tweet this article !

This week, Penny Landau, aka: The TV Junkie, takes a break from her usual column. Instead of talking to the TV, she's talking to actress/singer EMILY BERGL, who, on Thursday, August 26^th will be making her New York cabaret debut. Born in the UK to an Irish mother and a British father, Bergl grew up mainly in Chicago. Although she films in LA and other locations, she considers New York City her home. Emily talked about her film, stage and TV work (she joins the cast of “Desperate Housewives” this fall), but foremost on her mind, is her cabaret debut this week at Metropolitan Room.

Tweet this article !

To see Part One of the interview, please see this link: http://www.nitelifeexchange.com/interviews-mainmenu-154/1306-interview-with-janet-planet-part-one.html  For tix/reservation info for the Aug 13-14 performances, please see: www.feinsteinsatloewsregency.com...

Q:  You mentioned earlier, and in your show, that you’ve had these long-lasting relationships with musicians.  Quite unusual!  How does that factor into preparing or improvising or changing arrangements, overall approaches to songs, reading each other's minds/breathing as one onstage?

Tweet this article !

People know I see a LOT of cabaret.  Singer after singer.  When anyone has asked me, as they often do, what singer have I seen lately who really impressed me, I have one answer.  And it rhymes.  Janet Planet.

Sure, I have seen lots of singers over and over who impress me over and over.  But I had never seen Janet ‘til she had a one-night engagement here recently.  I just knew her work from having bought her on disc in the past.  Admittedly, it was her name that caught my eye, her song list that caught my interest, and soon the voice that caught my ear, so I was glad to – all this time later—catch her act in person.

Tweet this article !

When I entered Michael McQuary’s studio apartment in Greenwich Village, I stood there thinking, “Where’s my program?”  For this accomplished actor and award winning cabaret artist lives in an environment as theatrical and inventive as the worlds he creates on stage and film.   An array of exotic artifacts (ancient oriental weaponry, Egyptian sphinx, small tapestries that would have done Scheherazade’s boudoir proud) immediately caught my level eye.  Looking up, I noticed that the ceiling consisted entirely of broken pieces of glass arranged in a mosaic of daunting intricacy.

Tweet this article !

Following her recent performance at The Metropolitan Room in Manhattan, singer/recording artist Marieann Meringolo shared some thoughts on her work and what inspires her.  The show was full of songs plucked from her albums and past shows, such as Here’s to the Ladies, also on DVD, featuring songs associated with female stars she especially admires.  She also included several songs with melodies by Michel Legrand and a nod to her Italian background . Here is part of a conversation with NiteLife Exchange.

Tweet this article !

 Melody Breyer-Grell pulled up a chair and pulled out some questions for singer-songwriter Lina Koutrakos, who pulls in the crowds at the Iridium.  At the club on Broadway and West 51 Street, Lina and her band perform on the third Tuesday of each month, early and late shows, at the venue on Broadway and West 51 Street.