Andrea Axelrod returns to Don’t Tell Mama on June 9 at 4 pm, June 14 at 7 pm; September 8 at 4 pm and September 13 at 7 pm with After the Bawl, a singular (and often comic) look at the gamut of bittersweet emotions, moods and resolutions that follow a broken heart. At the piano is music director, John M. Cook.
The show’s songs are a mix of the familiar and unfamiliar, reflecting the full arc of recovery from heartache. With wit attended by personal experience, Axelrod sings her way through the phases of romantic grief, including self-pity, self-abasement, revenge fantasies (premiering a revenge rhumba written for the occasion by lyricist Michael Colby and set by John M. Cook), the faltering return of self-esteem, relapse, cold appraisal of the ex, joy in singlehood, emotional and physical loneliness, forgiveness and resolving to try again.
The program features songs by Harold Arlen/Johnny Mercer, Irving Berlin, John Bucchino, Johnny Burke/Jimmy van Heusen, Noel Coward, Cole Porter, Ralph Rainger/Leo Robin, Richard Rodgers (Lorenz Hart/Oscar Hammerstein), Stephen Sondheim, Jule Styne/Carolyn Leigh, Jeanine Tesori/Dick Scanlan, Fats Waller, Victoria Wood and Alec Wilder.
Axelrod is a storyteller often torn between “The Blues in the Night” and Mozart’s Queen of the Night. Offering a range of her voice and singing styles, she often presents an oddball choice of material for her shows, which listeners find both moving and funny. Her programs draw on her experiences and talents as a journalist, writer, lyricist and opera singer, as well as on her love and knowledge of American theater music.
She has performed numerous shows in New York cabarets with the late Paul Trueblood and Barry Levitt. She has also been heard in performances at the State Department, at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, in The Hague, in El Paso and in the Berkshires. She gave a concert-lecture based on her CD, The Lads That Will Never Be Old: Popular and Art Song From and About World War I, at the University of Nevada/Las Vegas, Butler University, the Princeton Club and Don’t Tell Mama.
After the Bawl, Sunday, June 9 at 4 pm; Friday, June 14 at 7 pm; Sunday, September 8 at 4 pm, and Friday, September 13 at 7 pm. Tickets are $15 at www.donttellmamanyc.com, with a two-drink minimum. Cash only.
Don’t Tell Mama is located at 343 West 46nd Street, NYC
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