Ari Axelrod’s show, A Place for Us: A Celebration of Jewish Broadway, is billed as a performance that spotlights Jewish cultural influences on the songs of Broadway composers, focusing specifically on that link. I went because I love musicals, love the musicals of the past, love the songs featured in the evening, and couldn’t wait to celebrate the remarkably gifted magical composers and their beloved creations.
“Jenn Colella: Out and Proud” is a rock and roll, theatrical pageantry with Colella and her band filling the stage at 54 Below.
Myriam Phiro, the internationally recognized French-Canadian enchantress whose alluring voice and swaying body movements emulated the icon she adores, celebrated her new album Becoming Marlene Dietrich at Chelsea Table and Stage. The show featured Hyuna Park and Elias Bailey.
Two-time Tony Award nominee Josie de Guzman performed her show “Back Where I Started” and enthralled listeners at The Green Room 42.The enchanting and vivacious de Guzman performed a musical biopic of her remarkable stage career. She spoke of the many fellow luminaries with whom she performed and collaborated. The amazing list includes Leonard Bernstein, Nathan Lane, Arthur Laurents, Jerome Robbins, Alan Jay Lerner, and Burton Lane, to name a few.
In the Trenches is fun and one feels just a bit sorry to see young adults leave behind their single, childless lives. But they muddle through and discover that raising a family is rewarding, time is fleeting and precious, and your single friends will have to deal with you and your yoga pants, PTA meetings, trips to the mall, a barking lab, and dinner moved up from 10 pm to 5 pm.
The audience was packed with Douglas’ loyal followers. As she introduced songs and told anecdotes of her mingling with the likes of Dolly Parton, Lena Horne, or Roberta Flack, people nodded and smiled in affirmation. She projects a sentimental, nostalgic, and caring persona and each song she sings creates a warm, safe, embracing space. Balancing her view of life through song is her sense of humor, a sweet smile, and joie de vivre.
Mark and Mathew know thousands of tunes and what’s performed works starts with requests paid for via Venmo. If someone in the audience doesn’t like the song they’re playing, they can outbid that song. whereas Mark and Mathew stop immediately and play the new request. If no one sends a paid request, Mark and Mathew play the Baby Shark Song until the audience is numb and desperate for something new.
Full of exuberant energy, Gray opened the show with the moving musical piece Devil’s Gonna Rise Up, written by Abigail and Shaun Bengson. Gray’s musical director, Cody Owen Stine, accompanied her on the accordion. The song is a haunting, almost spiritual tune, showcased in The National Theatre of Scotland’s performance of Anything That Gives Off Light. That show was created in response to the Scottish independence referendum several years ago and involved the Scottish-US relationship throughout history. Gray’s style of singing gave the song great depth.
The thrill of the disco era returned to 54 Below on March 1 for an exciting night as the famous and glamorous nightclub opened the dance floor to all who came to participate in two sold-out shows of Turn the Beat Around.
Seth Rudesky hosted an event at Café Carlyle that, in the annals of theater, shall remain a night of incredible music, cherished remembrances, personal anecdotes, and Broadway history told by the artists who live it. It was indeed a biographical sojourn of epic artistic proportions.
