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                                                             Blast off!! One of the most exciting musical events I’ve seen this year is back for Friday fun!  With re-imagined, re-invigorated arrangement ideas, Charlie Rosen’s 17-piece jazz orchestra, with Broadway talent singing/swinging on the bandstand.  They rock my theatrical world and knock my socks off with a sock-o performance of 100% dynamite. This Friday, May 24, they’re back at 54 Below.  Guests are: Jason Robert Brown; Motown: The Musical’s Ariana DeBose (she plays Mary Wilson of The Supremes); Cinderella's princely Santino Fontana, Mamma Mia! star Zak Resnick, plus Nick Blaemire and F. Michael Haynie. 

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                                                                                                                       Yes, Lea Salonga is in town ...Here's our writer Dan Bacalzo's look from his seat at The Carlyle......   Lea Salonga possesses one of the most glorious voices to grace the Broadway stage over the last few decades. She puts this fine instrument to good use in her new cabaret engagement at the Café Carlyle, Back to Before. The show gets its title from a song from Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens’s musical Ragtime, which Salonga delivers beautifully.

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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,